Revive your shoes and handbags at Mr. Pronto’s Leather Care and Laundry in Chennai

Shoes and bags being reworked at Mr. Pronto’s Leather Care and Laundry in Kottupuram, Chennai
| Photo Credit: Ravindran R

Riddled with holes, a fatigued looking Chanel bag that was relegated to the recesses of a closet, now has a new life. The holes are gone, the colour is back, and so is the bag’s personality. It is now traversing across the city from event to event and party to party as we speak.

At Mr. Pronto’s Leather Care and Laundry, bags and shoes are given a new lease of life and look, or even just cleaned based on the client’s requirements. But there are limitations. “We are not magicians. We set realistic expectations. We only do all forms of leather,” says Abhishek Dhingra, co-founder of Mr. Pronto, a shoe, bag, and repair company that was launched in Chennai in 2003. The city’s first outlet (now defunct) opened in Spencer Plaza followed by Alwarpet, Vadapalani, and Anna Nagar among others. Over the years, the establishment managed to set up shops in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad.

Leather Care and Laundry’s services first started in Delhi given the huge demand for restoring luxury accessories. The brand has now introduced these services to Chennai too. Apart from those in the city, clients from Bengaluru and Hyderabad also send their accessories here to be restored. While they receive luxury brands like Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent, restorations also expand to high street brands like Charles and Keith, and Aldo.

Before
| Photo Credit:
Ravindran R

It takes around a week to fix them based on the nature of service required. Services include concealing scratches with leather of the same colour and texture, scraping the top layer, recolouring heels, edging (colouring the edges of bags and shoes) restoring colour using Italian pigments, filling holes in bags with leather and dry cleaning. “Cleaning is a big aspect when it comes to shoes,” says Abhishek, adding that luxury products need to be handled a certain way. “Some high-end customers want their footwear shining all the time. So, after each wear it comes to us. Cleaning services start at around ₹600 based on the condition of the shoe, while spot correction for bags and shoes start at ₹1,000,” he says. They currently have a four-member team that operates out of a unit in Kotturpuram. Their skills are upgraded periodically with experts from Bangkok and the Philippines being brought in.

After
| Photo Credit:
Ravindran R

Abhishek first saw these services in the Philippines. “I saw the market outside India very responsive to this idea where people buy luxury leather goods and get it fixed. I decided to bring it to India,” he says, adding “Looking after a shoe is far better than buying many more.”

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