Old shoes, new goals: Delhi to get India’s first recycled-footwear football field

Image used for representational purpose

The World Athletics Championships is currently underway in Tokyo but medal hopes by an Indian keep shrinking as we move towards the end of the sporting spectacle in the Japanese capital. India sent a 19-member contingent for the elite track and field competition, yet Neeraj Chopra, who is India's most decorated athlete, remained the only hope. On Thursday, even that was dashed as Chopra finished eighth in the men’s javelin final. Yes, two more names are still in fray, but expecting a podium finish from them also appear unfeasible.

While the present may not be appealing, but things are on the move - keeping in mind India's Olympic and Commonwealth Games ambitions. And Nasir Ali, the Founder and CEO of Gallant Sports & Infra, hopes to play some role in turning it into a reality.

A 360-degree company, Gallant focuses on building sports infrastructure. They have developed around twelve sports arenas for the community to play in Delhi-NCR, and are among the first company to have started manufacturing athletic tracks in India, also look after the maintenance. And recently they became the first licensee in India of Nike Grind, a global program that turns old shoes and manufacturing waste into high-performance sports surfaces.

Also Read | Sport is cruel and Neeraj Chopra is human

"Nike started this in 1992 to repurpose shoes headed for landfills. Basically, they take the shoes, the soles which are made of rubber are grinded and those granules are put in the fields. Generally, we see shredded truck tyres being used in India but people say it's carcinogenic, generates a lot of heat, and smells like tyre. So, this is something which we wanted to bring in in India, like repurpose shoes, putting it in those fields," he told Moneycontrol.

Nasir mentioned that it may take a couple of years or even more to produce the granules themselves, and at the moment it will be imported from the factories of Nike Grind. If we look at the finance, Gallant's revenue as of March 2024 was estimated around 60.5 crores, which is a 30 percent growth as per Accumn, a Yubi company. Nasir - a Stanford alumnus - who founded the company in 2016 as a bootstrapped venture, is among the few to witness the sector boom gradually but an ambitious project such as this does require enormous investment.

Granules generated from grinding repurpose shoes

When asked if the company plans for any equity fund raise from private equity and venture capital funds, Nasir highlighted the rising interest of investors in the sports sector. In addition, he was also optimistic of the company filing for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) sometime by early next year.

"IPO might be on the cards as part of our growth journey. We already have some good investors in our company. Luckily a lot of people are ready to invest in sports nowadays and seeing the growth we are planning large manufacturing plant in athletic tracks. There's going to be huge demand for athletic tracks, for jogging tracks all over the country," he noted.

As far as turfs are concerned, Delhi-NCR may get their first sustainable playground as early as October. "We are making one, but right now because of the rains the work could not be finished. But I think by next month we'll have something, as we already have the first container of the rubber grind," he said.