A SKICORP Group Company
Athletic uppers | Leather uppers
of a shoe's material cost sits in the upper.
source of rework and rejection at lasting.
component vendors typically managed for a single upper.
The upper drives most of your material cost, rework, and vendor headaches. AAKAR delivers it to you as one finished upper.
AAKAR is a specialist manufacturer of athletic and leather shoe uppers, built to help footwear brands and manufacturers achieve better control over cost, quality, development and delivery.
What makes AAKAR different is what sits behind the upper.
AAKAR is part of SKICORP Group, a footwear-components manufacturing platform with 30+ years of experience, 11 manufacturing units, operations across 8 countries, 1,200+ active customers and a network of international joint ventures.
This gives AAKAR access to an integrated ecosystem of critical upper components — from reinforcements, adhesives and tapes to laces, webbings, labels, linings, foams, leathers and toe puffs.
A shoe upper is made up of multiple components, processes and suppliers. Managing them separately can create higher costs, inconsistent quality, development delays and coordination challenges.
AAKAR brings these elements together.
By leveraging SKICORP’s component expertise and manufacturing ecosystem, AAKAR can control the Bill of Materials end-to-end, coordinate critical inputs and maintain greater control over how components come together in the finished upper.
The result is a more integrated approach to upper manufacturing — designed for:
SKICORP: India’s Super Tier-2 footwear-components platform
AAKAR Components is a SKICORP Group company. The uppers we build sit on top of a components platform SKICORP has been assembling since 1994.
component categories made or controlled by SKICORP.
Bought at platform cost. Applied with platform know-how. Certified at input level.
Explore the full SKICORP platform at skicorp.net
| Plant | IndiaAndhra PradeshSKICORP Components Park · APIIC Thatiguntapalli, Chittoor | ChinaQingyuan, Dongguan, GuangdongPearl River Delta athletic-materials cluster |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Athletic · leather · dress · casual · boots · safety | Athletic · synthetic · mesh · knit · no-sew |
| Capacity | 3,000 pairs/day → 10,000 by June 2027 | 5,000 pairs/day → 10,000 by Feb 2027 |
| Lines · Workforce | C2S – 20 lines · 2,000 operators | C2S – 20 lines · 1,600 operators |
| Ownership | 100% SKICORP (Meridian Components Pvt Ltd) | JV with partner |
| Duty / FTA position | India–UK FTA · India–UAE CEPA · India–EU (from Feb ’27) · zero import duty & freight for Indian factories | ASEAN and Asia-based factories supplying US/EU · nearshore for regional Tier-1s |
| Material ecosystem | SKICORP Components Park on site — laces, PU leather, toe puff, reinforcements | Pearl River Delta athletic-materials cluster · SKICORP China sourcing team |
| Lead time to market | India 3–7 days · Middle East / EU / UK 14–25 days sea | ASEAN 3–10 days · US West Coast 18–22 days sea |
Swipe the table to compare both plants →
How we make uppers: one controlled process, measured at every step.
Tech pack, sketches and first sample.
Patterns drawn and graded across the full size run before anything reaches the cutting room.
Die-less, AI-driven automatic cutting — panels cut to the graded pattern, in athletic mesh and textiles or in leather.
Edges skived and material split down to the thickness each seam is built for.
Reinforcements and laminates applied — the step the SKICORP component platform is built around.
Panels closed to the seam and stitch specification set out in your tech pack.
Transfers, overlays and branding applied to the closed upper.
Every upper checked against the specification before it’s released for lasting.
Uppers paired, protected against moisture and mould, and packed sustainably.
You bring the pattern and the specification. We cut, reinforce, stitch and finish the upper exactly to your print.
Pattern, specification and bill of materials.
We develop the upper with your team — pattern, construction and component selection worked out together before production.
Pattern, construction and component selection.
We take the upper end to end — components sourced from the SKICORP platform, built and delivered lasting-ready to your line.
Components, development and the finished upper.
The possibilities are endless. Develop with us, or bring your design and material specifications — we’ll take it from concept to finished upper.
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Tell us what you're building — athletic or leather, which plant suits you, and at which service level you'd like to come in.