In the early 50s, a man called Jiwand Singh ran a shoe shop the size of an ATM in Ambala. A hard-working refugee, the man was much loved by his customers for his affable spirit. Singh’s shop was the most popular amongst locals. Whether it was a little boy who needed shoes or an elderly woman who needed a pair to soothe her hurting knees, Singh always found the best pair for everyone. The enterprising shopkeeper wanted to become the best in leather shoes and hence, in 1954, the man decided to move to Delhi to start a small manufacturing unit in one of the busiest markets in Karol Bagh.
The man was not only hard-working but also understood business well. Since Eastern Europe and the erstwhile Soviet Union were major markets for Indian leather exporters, getting into exports became priority. His company, the Aero Group, started exporting shoe uppers and leather to Canada and Soviet Union. During the 1980s, the annual exports of the company touched ₹102 crore, almost all the revenue of the company. Singh started to acquire inhouse knowledge and resources to understand different aspects of the shoe business, be it manufacturing the best leather shoes that were waterproof and heat retaining, retail, marketing or design. A decade later, the economy at home started to open up thanks to the reforms led by the PV Narasimha Rao government. At this time, Aero Group was a 40-year-old company which manufactured and exported leather-based goods, garments and knitwear. In 1991, they established themselves in Italy and Germany, forming 20 per cent of their sales, while Soviet Union formed 80 per cent. The brand acquired new life and Italian and German designers stepped in to add value. They had also built a huge infrastructure to meet the demand for its products, and factory equipment was shifted to India. Like most family men, Jiwand Singh had passed down the business to his son, Avtar. An equally hard-working man, everyone in Aero Group starting calling him Bade Sardarji. To expand the business, Bade Sardarji had established a brand called Wings that sold some of the shoes manufactured by the Aero Group.
However, 90s was also the time when the world literally fell apart. The disintegration of the USSR meant that India exports to Russia (then Soviet Union) fell drastically from ₹5,255 crore in the early 90s to about ₹1,700 crore by 92–93. The Aero Group bore a loss up to ₹100 crore. Wings was contributing only 5 per cent to its turnover and things had become unsustainable.
Bade Sardarji was anxious and was looking for something new.
