Buckaroo's DIY flip-flop kit turns cobblers into custom-fit fitters — two Grands Prix

Buckaroo, a value footwear brand in India, wanted to be 'footwear for all' — but one group it couldn't reach was people with clubfoot, a birth condition that makes standard shoes painful and ill-fitting. Custom orthopaedic footwear existed, but cost far more than the mostly lower-income families affected could pay, and specialists were out of reach. The unmet need was social as much as medical: badly fitting shoes marked and isolated the wearer.

The idea, built by McCann Worldgroup India with orthopaedic experts and footwear designers, was to stop selling shoes and start selling a kit: two sheets of rubber sole — one hard, one soft — plus tracing paper and adjustable straps, cut to the wearer's foot. Crucially, the kit was designed to work with the centuries-old tools of India's street cobblers, part of a 30-million-strong unorganised workforce, so the people who already knew feet and leather became both the fitters and the distribution channel.

A pilot launched in Mumbai in February 2024, then scaled to 4,526 cobbler locations. Kits carried picture-based instructions so they worked across literacy levels, and vibrant street art behind cobbler stalls advertised the service hyperlocally. Each custom pair sold for USD 2.40.

The results: 228,000 pairs sold, more than 4,500 cobblers activated with a new income stream, and people with clubfoot gained affordable, dignified mobility. The work won the Grande Innova Lotus at ADFEST 2025 and the Design Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2025, plus a Silver in Sustainable Lotus and Bronzes in Design and Creative Strategy — a product, a distribution network and a social mission rolled into one.