New Delhi, May 23 -- If you are looking for a eureka moment when Taranjeet Singh Chhabra and Amar Preet Singh decided to start their footwear venture Neeman's, you may be disappointed. The idea behind the business, the brothers tell me at their Gurugram office in April, was inspired by their desire to solve a problem they had faced for a long time: clunky, uncomfortable leather shoes killing their feet or exorbitant ones that burnt a hole in their pocket. All they wanted was to find a pair of shoes that was light, unostentatious and, most of all, supremely comfortable.

"Both of us still test out our footwear," says Chhabra, 42, co-founder and CEO of the company. "I have a wardrobe full of Neeman's testers, which are part of my daily wear...