Birdhouse: A Sustainable Footwear Brand that Turns Their Packaging into Birdhouses

The sound of chirping birds, the woods of the forest, and the colour of algae all merged to make a brand that embraces slow fashion. Birdhouse, founded by Malika Garg, is a Jaipur-based brand that specialises in conscious footwear for women. Based on the principles of thoughtful design, eco-friendly materials, and functional artistry, the brand is a budding venture of Malika, a footwear designer trained at NIFT Delhi who later specialised at FIT New York, and launched Birdhouse in 2024 after extensive research and development. "I wanted to start something where we're making a brand which is just not about good-looking shoes. It's focused on comfort, it's talking about sustainability, it has some meaningful storytelling to it," explains the founder.

After working for over five years at an Indian retail brand where she handled everything from merchandising to sales, Malika spent 18 months researching materials and developing the purpose-driven communication she envisioned for her brand. "Since the first day we manufactured everything in-house to make sure the quality, what material we are putting, it's what we're communicating to the consumer," she emphasises. "The manufacturing process is very crucial to the whole idea of sustainability."

It all starts with a conscious decision to incorporate eco-friendly materials throughout most of its production process. Their footwear features cork footbeds sourced from Rajasthan, algae-blended soles from Germany, and biodegradable microfiber uppers. "The basic idea is to reduce the plastic component and add more bio-based material," says Garg, explaining their collaboration with Bloom, a German company that transforms algae collected from water into granular form for sole sheets. The brand uses raffia threads—a cellulosic yarn—for hand embroidery, creating unique designs that celebrate craftsmanship while being environmentally conscious. All these materials are highlighted in material cards included with every purchase, offering customers tangible evidence of the sustainable components in their footwear.

What sets Birdhouse apart is its commitment to incorporating handcraft techniques in modern designs. "In all the techniques we try to employ as much of hand embroidery, handicraft in all the design stories," shares Malika. The brand works with artisans primarily from Uttar Pradesh, where the shoemaking craft is prominent. However, when a community has to come together in collaboration with sustainability and in-house production, the business process comes with its own set of challenges. Sourcing material and developing it on its own is a major hurdle, particularly when dealing with the traditional factories that are resistant to change.

"I had a lot of setbacks from all the factories and material houses because they're not ready to go out of their comfort zone in terms of the formulations and the processes they use," the entrepreneur reveals. After months of struggling with phone calls and emails, Malika travelled to Chennai, Kanpur, and Agra to personally visit factories. "In India, to actually get the manufacturers to develop something new for you and be honest about the content of material used was a major challenge," she explains.

Consumer education presents another challenge. "There's so much misinformation in the market that people really don't know how to filter out the black and white in this," says Malika. "We cannot be 100% sustainable from day one. We're probably at least 50% there in every material and development we're trying to innovate much better." Our packaging is one such initiative that speaks for itself.” Their shoe boxes transform into actual birdhouses. "The entire box becomes a birdhouse," Malika explains proudly. "That's always a conversation starter for us. And then people get curious, 'OK, why is it called Birdhouse? Why do we even need birdhouses?"

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Each box comes with a stick that serves as a perch, and instructions for converting the packaging into a functional birdhouse. This creative approach to sustainability extends the life of what would typically be discarded after purchase.

"For us, it's from day one about rightful information being passed on," says Malika, about their transparent communication strategy. "You need to have creative ways of communication which get people engaged about knowing the materials, the sustainability, the process of it."