Wearing a wooden expression

It’s said that most Indian corporate executives wear a wooden expression. Don’t take offence. It might only be a reference to the tie they are sporting. A couple of months ago, Justwood, a Mumbai-based company, started making ties out of wood.

These handmade pieces of art are available at a price of ₹1,999 for regular designs, at ₹2,499 for wildlife designs and at ₹2,999 for customised designs. Company founder Ajinkya Jadhav says each tie takes about two weeks to be completed. That’s why the company, which takes orders online through its website justwood.in, asks customers for a delivery lead time of 21 days.

Each tie, made of 13 interlocked pieces of wood, weighs less than 100 gm (the weight of a silk tie) and is of the normal size of 20 inches – the average length worn by Indian males. Also, customers need not bother about getting the knot right. Each tie has the knot moulded in wood and can be attached to your neck courtesy a Velcro strap – remember the primary school days?

Jadhav started working on this concept more than a year ago and has the intellectual property rights for the product in the Indian market. Globally, only a handful of companies across the world make wooden ties. Jadhav estimates that across the world only five companies make ties out of wood, three from the US and two from the UK. Hence Justwood saw an opportunity in this segment as the Indian customer was more exposed to global tastes than ever before and is increasingly open to experimenting with clothing and accessories.

Jadhav says the product was the brainchild of his friend, Sudarshan More. However, More dropped the idea midway thinking there might be few takers for such a product. “With environmental consciousness increasing, we were not sure how consumers would react to this product. But since the idea was novel, we decided to persist with it,” says Jadhav.

He maintains that the concept is niche. “This is not a bulk business,” Jadhav says, adding that there is only one distributor for the ties in Mumbai apart from the online retail option. That’s why Jadhav is not opting for bulk manufacturing and machine-finished ties, and is keen to ensure that the ties are hand-made till the printing stage.

To be sure, Jadhav had to first ensure that the ties do not hang heavily on the neck. So it was important that apart from the weight being less than 100 gm, the interlocking pieces themselves were less than 3-4 mm thick. Justwood experimented with Indian teak wood but found that it would crack at the interlocking joints, and decided to stick to South African teak.

Jadhav says that with the wooden ties, Justwood wants to ensure that the differentiation is beyond just the material used. “We will not focus on the routine designs. The selling factor will also include unusual design ideas.” At a recent exhibition in Mumbai, the concept was really appreciated, he says. Hopefully that translates to sales as well. Touch wood!