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Love your feet with loofah slippers
Published on Dec 3, 2018
By EMN
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Local entrepreneur Vitoli Achumi’s loofah slippers and homemade soaps are one of the novelties on display at the Hornbill Festival in Kohima. (EM Images)[/caption]
Kohima, Dec. 3 (EMN): Feeling bored with leather, rubber, plastic, and other petrochemical-derived materials? Well, it is time to pamper your feet with organic unisex slippers made from luffa aka the fibrous flesh of the sponge gourd, which is also a popular vegetable for people of Nagaland.
Luffa or loofah slippers made by an ingenious entrepreneur, Vitoli Achumi, are a one-of-a-kind design and product at the Hornbill Festival. Achumi runs an establishment called Aasuto Enterprises at Sematilla colony in Dimapur. She runs a stall with the same name, M/S Aasuto Enterprises, cabin 34, at the Bamboo Pavilion at Kisama in Kohima.
In an interaction with Eastern Mirror, Achumi said it had been three years since she devised the product but this was her first time exposing it at the Hornbill Festival. She explained that the loofah slippers have a thermal waterproof outsole, luffa insole, synthetic fibre for the upper, and stitched with jute fibre. It is chemical free, non-slippery, and easy to wash.
“Most of us think luffa is only meant for eating and for scrubbing. After years of experimenting, I later came up with an idea of making this product alive,” Achumi said. She alone makes the entire lot of products, and manually too.
Loofah slippers massage feet muscles as the wearer walks; and exfoliate rough skin on the sole, among other benefits. The slippers are available at the rate of INR 750 and 850 for small and large size. She assured that the product will last more than one year.
Achumi told his reporter that luffas were first sourced from Shillong in Meghalaya. “In most of the shops and houses in Nagaland, people discard luffas thinking it is useless,” she said. She collaborated with some vegetable vendors at the Super Market in Dimapur, from whom the raw materials are sourced in bulk. She said to have between 600 and 700 units of loofah slippers in stock, and targets to sell at least 400 units.
Achumi also makes shoes for men and wedges for women, woven by cotton-nylon threads and has leather insoles. The shoes have a thermoplastic rubber outsole while the wedges have a polyvinyl chloride outsole.
Other unique products at her stall include soaps made by her sister Rebecca Achumi, who is also an entrepreneur. There are seven varieties of ‘completely organic’ soap. They are charcoal and goat milk soap; charcoal and rose petal soap; lavender oats soap; charcoal, coffee, and rose petal soap; aloe vera, honey, and lavender bud soap; charcoal and rose petal soap; and goat milk, lavender, and rose petal soap. Some soap even contain loofa. The soaps cost INR 200 for 200g and INR 100 for 100g.
Local entrepreneur Vitoli Achumi’s loofah slippers and homemade soaps are one of the novelties on display at the Hornbill Festival in Kohima. (EM Images)[/caption]
Kohima, Dec. 3 (EMN): Feeling bored with leather, rubber, plastic, and other petrochemical-derived materials? Well, it is time to pamper your feet with organic unisex slippers made from luffa aka the fibrous flesh of the sponge gourd, which is also a popular vegetable for people of Nagaland.
Luffa or loofah slippers made by an ingenious entrepreneur, Vitoli Achumi, are a one-of-a-kind design and product at the Hornbill Festival. Achumi runs an establishment called Aasuto Enterprises at Sematilla colony in Dimapur. She runs a stall with the same name, M/S Aasuto Enterprises, cabin 34, at the Bamboo Pavilion at Kisama in Kohima.
In an interaction with Eastern Mirror, Achumi said it had been three years since she devised the product but this was her first time exposing it at the Hornbill Festival. She explained that the loofah slippers have a thermal waterproof outsole, luffa insole, synthetic fibre for the upper, and stitched with jute fibre. It is chemical free, non-slippery, and easy to wash.
“Most of us think luffa is only meant for eating and for scrubbing. After years of experimenting, I later came up with an idea of making this product alive,” Achumi said. She alone makes the entire lot of products, and manually too.
Loofah slippers massage feet muscles as the wearer walks; and exfoliate rough skin on the sole, among other benefits. The slippers are available at the rate of INR 750 and 850 for small and large size. She assured that the product will last more than one year.
Achumi told his reporter that luffas were first sourced from Shillong in Meghalaya. “In most of the shops and houses in Nagaland, people discard luffas thinking it is useless,” she said. She collaborated with some vegetable vendors at the Super Market in Dimapur, from whom the raw materials are sourced in bulk. She said to have between 600 and 700 units of loofah slippers in stock, and targets to sell at least 400 units.
Achumi also makes shoes for men and wedges for women, woven by cotton-nylon threads and has leather insoles. The shoes have a thermoplastic rubber outsole while the wedges have a polyvinyl chloride outsole.
Other unique products at her stall include soaps made by her sister Rebecca Achumi, who is also an entrepreneur. There are seven varieties of ‘completely organic’ soap. They are charcoal and goat milk soap; charcoal and rose petal soap; lavender oats soap; charcoal, coffee, and rose petal soap; aloe vera, honey, and lavender bud soap; charcoal and rose petal soap; and goat milk, lavender, and rose petal soap. Some soap even contain loofa. The soaps cost INR 200 for 200g and INR 100 for 100g.Nagaland Districts
