Journey of SoleCraft “From initiation to greater heights with each dawn”

India’s gig economy is scaling newer heights, thanks to the surge of innovative startups and young entrepreneurs who are changing the rules of how businesses functioned. These young achievers do not only dream to achieve big in life, but they also nurture their passion to resolve the social inequities gripping our country. India too is in much need of this new breed of sociopreneurs to come out with unconventional business models to address the environmental and social issues. 

This is where “Solecraft”, Jodhpur based startup, which is incubated and accelerated by Marwari Catalysts, inturn comes as an impactful example, who has successfully bought in the new wave of sustainable fashion with upcycling of denims, addressing the environmental issue and along with this Solecraft reproduces ecofriendly school kits and comfortable footwear for the children in need, addressing the social issue. 

Jeans never goes out of style and most of us find ourselves adding a new pair every year. A popular product, denims have formed the basis of fashion since the early 20th century. As demand for jeans continue to thrive, many us go on wearing them every day, unaware about the detrimental effects they have on the environment, which is an intrinsic problem of the fashion industry.

The afterlife of denims is always blue. Thus used and old denims can be diverted from the landfill and given a new life by upcycling. 

Solecraft's team collects discarded pieces of denim, enlightening them with a new life for the sake of connecting to some beautiful souls and making them happy, i.e the upcycled denims are distributed for free to marginal school children in Jodhpur and the villages on the outskirts of the city with the help of donations or sponsorships.

The pilot project was started to reach out to 100 children, gradually increased to 1,200, thus impacting several lives in a positive way and successfully turning waste to life.

The founders Mrinalini Rajpurohit, Atul Mehta, Nikhil Gehlot dipped into their savings and invested over a lakh in the upcycling project. They also started a media campaign to begin a collection drive of denims.

So far, the social enterprise has upcycled 1,500 discarded pieces of denim, and they hope to reach out to one million children through the project in the coming years. Their customer base is also expanding beyond Jodhpur. For instance, some of their customers purchased the school kit (Rs 400) in bulk and distributed them in cities like Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

After the success of their first phase, the company has initiated a crowdfunding campaign and so far, Solecraft have raised 2.1 lakhs and working towards 2.9 more lakhs, with the support of Milaap.

Evolving more with each passing day and making new connections, Solecraft has also joined hands with ‘Mangaldeep ’ and ‘Aagam’ for denim collection drives to equip more and more children in need and trying to attain new heights with each passing dawn. These innovative thinkers are putting their skills to use and bringing improvements to people and places that desperately need it, thus changing the face of urban India.

The efforts made by Solecraft for the happiness of lifting others is also been covered by 

Rajasthan Patrika https://bit.ly/35q93RR, 

Dainik Bhaskar https://bit.ly/33fAhJ0 ,

Be Positive India https://bit.ly/2OE2DIM ,

YourStory https://bit.ly/2IH9xt6 ,

The Better India https://bit.ly/327OCHp ,

Socio Story https://bit.ly/328Eluq ,

94.3 My FM and 94.3 Radio1 FM (based in Bangalore), 

acknowledging the vision, idea and providing a platform in spreading the word to more and more people. 

Thus, Solecraft have emerged itself as a sustainable and social work label, wherein the impact entrepreneurs are employing the upcycling process in a new way, sparking a trend that’s gaining a serious momentum with a social purpose.

Solecraft is crafting for souls, are we ready to donate for them?

Sushil Sharma-

Founder, Marwari Catalysts Ventures