A trio of entrepreneurial Edinburgh Napier students are shining brightly in the start-up world as their shoe cleaning service continues to expand into new regions.
Shoe Fix Edinburgh was established last year by Edinburgh Napier marketing students Euan Bodie and Lewis Holman and sport and exercise science student Hannah Thomson.
The business puts life back into shoes and trainers by offering a high-end cleaning service that includes a range of services from midsole repainting, body cleaning and shoe protection alongside free collection and delivery.
The trio met while studying at Edinburgh Napier University, with the idea sparking from a conversation they had whilst working a hosting shift at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on how best to clean their designer trainers.
Upon quickly realising there was no company that could provide the service they were looking for in Edinburgh or surrounding areas, the students realised there was an evident gap in the market and Shoe Fix Edinburgh was born.
Since its creation, the business has overseen rapid growth, with 100s using the service to breathe new life into their designer shoes and trainers.
The service has also proved popular with some of the city’s footballers, with Heart of Midlothian defender John Souttar and Hibs midfielder Fraser Murray among Shoe Fix’s growing customer list.
Interest in the shoe-fixing service has grown so much that the business has recently expanded into new areas and now covers Falkirk, Stirling and Livingston as well as Edinburgh itself.
And with the trio’s time at Edinburgh Napier soon to come to an end, the team is looking to build on their success across the country.
Shoe Fix Edinburgh’s Lewis Holman said: “We all have an interest and passion in trainers, as do loads of other millennials across the UK today. With a collection of designer shoes between us, we regularly used to browse the web and supermarket shelves to track down the best product to clean our shoes when they needed some TLC, but this wasn’t enough.
“As we are students we can’t afford to regularly purchase high end designer trainers and replace those that we think are beyond repair, and we know we are not alone in this so the idea for Shoe Fix Edinburgh really stemmed from there.
“We were initially surprised with the interest in the service – we didn’t expect to experience high growth in such a short space of time. However we have backed ourselves and knew there was a clear gap in the market. As marketing students we have used what we have learnt over the past four years to our advantage and made use of marketing communications to the best of our ability.
“We believe that our popularity is down to the quality of the service we provide. Through social media we are able to share customer feedback and post the results from a service at Shoe Fix. Our followers on Instagram love to see our before and after shots in which you can see how the shoes have transformed – check them out!
“As university is coming to an end, we thought now is the perfect time to put all of our time and effort into Shoe Fix, expand where we can and meet the existing demand. We love working together and what we do and that’s when we are at our happiest, so we have made the decision to put our all into this.”
Shoe Fix Edinburgh offers three levels of service: basic, advanced and professional. Prices start from £20 with free collection and delivery for all customers.
