Liberty is one of India’s oldest surviving footwear names — a Karnal, Haryana operation that has been making shoes since 1954 and now sells everything from ₹250 rubber slippers to leather formals through roughly 467 exclusive showrooms. Most of what it sells sits between ₹500 and ₹1,500. The single most important thing about Liberty is not on any shoe box: the listed company that manufactures and sells Liberty footwear does not own the Liberty trademark. It licenses it.
Liberty has made shoes in Karnal since 1954 and prices most of its range between ₹500 and ₹1,500. It is the right buy for school shoes and safety boots, and merely adequate elsewhere. The catch sits above the shop floor: the listed company licences the Liberty name from three family firms. Partners in those firms have served termination notices.
Snapshot
- Founded
- 1954, Karnal, India
- Founder
- Dharam Pal Gupta, Purshotam Das Gupta and Rajkumar Bansal
- Headquarters
- Karnal, Haryana, India
- Current owner
- Liberty Shoes Limited (NSE and BSE listed, incorporated September 1986); promoter group holds about 59%
- Category
- Footwear
- Price band in India
- ₹249 to about ₹3,000, with the bulk between ₹500 and ₹1,500
- Available in India
- Official — company showrooms, libertyshoesonline.com, and mainstream marketplaces
How it started
Three men — Dharam Pal Gupta, Purshotam Das Gupta and Rajkumar Bansal — started a shoe unit in Karnal in 1954 making, by the company’s own account, four pairs a day. The context matters: at that point Bata had been in India for two decades and effectively defined what a branded shoe was. Liberty grew by going where Bata was thin, selling through independent distributors into small towns rather than building expensive high-street stores.
The turning point was export. Liberty says its first overseas shipment went to the USSR in 1975, which in the licence-raj era meant hard currency and a reason for the state to leave it alone. The structure that still governs the group was laid down later: the family businesses stayed as partnership firms, and in September 1986 a separate company, Liberty Shoes Limited, was incorporated to run the manufacturing and selling operation. That split — firms on one side, listed company on the other — is the story of the next four decades.
- Karnal, 1954Three founders start a shoe unit making four pairs a day
- 1975First export shipment goes to the USSR
- September 1986Liberty Shoes Limited incorporated to manufacture and sell
- The firms keep the nameListed company licences the trademark from three family partnership firms
The diagram shows how a 1954 family shoe unit ended up split between partnership firms and a listed company.
What they actually make
Everything, at the cheap-to-mid end. Liberty Shoes Limited runs five manufacturing units — Karnal, Gharaunda and Liberty Puram in Haryana, Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh, and Roorkee in Uttarakhand — with a combined installed capacity of 106 lakh pairs a year, per CARE Ratings. That is a little over 10 million pairs annually, which sounds large until you set it against Relaxo, whose stated capacity is 10.5 lakh pairs a day. Liberty is an old, broad, mid-sized manufacturer, not a volume machine.
What confuses shoppers is that Liberty does not put “Liberty” on most of its shoes. It runs a fleet of sub-brands, each aimed at a different shelf, and many buyers own one without knowing whose it is.
What Liberty costs in India
Liberty is an Indian brand made in Indian factories, so there is no import duty story here and no global-versus-India gap to expose. The honest question is different: is Liberty priced fairly against the other Indian mass-market shoe brands it sits beside on the same shelf? Prices below are from Liberty’s own online store as of August 2026.
| Product | Sub-brand | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Men’s casual slipper | A-HA | ₹249 to ₹799 |
| Uniform school shoe (velcro or lace) | Force10 | ₹899 (kids’ sizes) to ₹1,299 (adult sizes) |
| Men’s running shoe (FORCE-8) | Force10 | ₹1,299 |
| Main Force10 range | Force10 | 36 styles at ₹999 to ₹1,499; only 6 styles above ₹1,500 |
Two things stand out. First, Liberty prices school shoes by size, so the same model costs ₹899 in a size 8C and ₹1,299 in an adult size — worth knowing before you assume a sibling’s shoe will cost the same. Second, the range is genuinely narrow at the top: six styles above ₹1,500 across the whole Force10 line. That puts Liberty in almost exactly the same band as Relaxo’s Sparx, whose catalogue also concentrates in the ₹500 to ₹1,500 range.
The verdict on pricing is that it is fair rather than clever. Liberty is not undercutting anyone and it is not charging a premium it has not earned. What it does not have is Relaxo’s scale, and in a business where a rupee of cost per pair matters, that shows up in the financials rather than on the price tag: revenue of ₹675 crore in FY2025 against a net profit that Screener puts at ₹11 crore on FY2026 revenue of ₹740 crore. That is a thin margin for a brand this old.
Who Liberty is actually for
Liberty is for the buyer who wants a real shoe from a real factory at a price that does not require thinking about it. School footwear is where it is strongest — Force10 is stocked in practically every town, sizes are consistent year to year, and the ₹899 to ₹1,299 band is the correct amount to spend on something a child will outgrow in eleven months. Warrior safety boots are the other genuine win: industrial buyers order them by the carton for a reason.
Skip Liberty if you want design. The formal and casual lines are competent and unfashionable, and at ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 you are shopping against Bata’s Hush Puppies, Metro and a wall of online-first brands that put more effort into looks. Skip it too if you want performance running or gym shoes — Liberty sells sports-styled shoes, not sports shoes, and the cushioning and outsole engineering are not competitive with what Campus or Sparx offer at the same money, let alone Puma or Adidas above it.
The listed company does not own its own name.
Reputation and controversies
Liberty’s problems are corporate, not consumer. There are no documented product safety recalls or large-scale quality scandals attached to the brand. What there is, is a governance situation that a buyer of the stock should care about far more than a buyer of the shoes.
Liberty Shoes Limited operates under long-term arrangements with three group partnership firms — Liberty Group Marketing Division, Liberty Enterprises and Liberty Footwear Co — that hold the intellectual property. CARE Ratings records that the arrangement was renewed with validity until 31 March 2028, and, critically, that the company “has received termination notice from multiple partners in these firms.” Management’s stated position is that the majority of partners intend to bring the Liberty brand and other assets into the listed company. Until that happens, it is unresolved.
Separately, the promoter families have been in open conflict. Adesh Kumar Gupta, long the company’s chief executive, was removed as an executive director on 30 September 2023. He petitioned the NCLT; because he held 5.83% and the law sets a 10% threshold, he needed a waiver to proceed. The NCLT refused in November 2023 and the NCLAT dismissed his appeal on 22 September 2024, holding that his grievance was essentially personal to his removal. None of this changes the shoe in the box. It does explain why an established brand has been running flat rather than growing.
- Board, 30 September 2023Removed as an executive director of Liberty Shoes Limited
- NCLT, November 2023Waiver refused; he held 5.83% against a 10% threshold
- NCLAT, 22 September 2024Appeal dismissed as a grievance personal to his removal
The diagram traces the former chief executive’s petition through both tribunals.
Buying it in India
Use a channel the company sells on itself
Buy from Liberty’s own showrooms, from libertyshoesonline.com, or from the brand stores on Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra. The company sells directly on all of them, so there is no reason to use an unfamiliar seller.
Stop worrying about counterfeits
Counterfeiting follows margin, and nobody runs a fake factory for a ₹899 school shoe. Fakes are not the risk with this brand.
Know a lookalike from a fake
Small-market shops carry unbranded or near-branded shoes in the same silhouette at around ₹400. That is a different product rather than a counterfeit, and it is priced like one.
Read the size-priced label on a Force10
Liberty’s own MRP on a school shoe rises with size. A shop quoting one flat price across every size is either discounting or not selling what it says it is.
Do not buy it overseas
Grey-market or overseas buying makes no sense here. Liberty is cheaper in India than anywhere it exports to, which is the whole point of an Indian mass-market brand.
Common questions
Is Liberty a good brand for school shoes?
Yes — it is arguably the best reason to buy Liberty. Force10 uniform shoes run ₹899 to ₹1,299 depending on size, sizing is consistent between years, and availability is near-universal in Indian towns. For a shoe a child outgrows in a year, that is the correct amount to spend.
Is Liberty an Indian brand or a foreign one?
Fully Indian. It started in Karnal, Haryana in 1954, the listed company was incorporated there in September 1986, and all five of its manufacturing units are in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Nothing about it is imported or foreign-owned.
Which brands does Liberty own?
Force10, Gliders, Coolers, Footfun, Warrior, Windsor, Senorita, Tiptop, Prefect, Lucy & Luke, A-HA, Leap7X, Healers and Fortune, among others. Many shoppers own a Liberty product without recognising it, because the parent name rarely appears on the shoe.
Is Liberty better than Bata or Relaxo?
It is smaller than both. Liberty’s installed capacity is 106 lakh pairs a year; Relaxo’s is 10.5 lakh pairs a day. On price the three are broadly matched in the ₹500 to ₹1,500 band. Liberty’s edge is school and safety footwear, not fashion or sport.
Why is Liberty’s share price weak if the brand is well known?
Chiefly governance. The listed company licences the Liberty trademark from three family partnership firms until 31 March 2028 and has received termination notices from multiple partners in them. This is a shareholder concern, not a shoe-buyer’s one.
References
- CARE Ratings, press release on Liberty Shoes Limited, December 2025 — trademark licence with the three partnership firms, validity to 31 March 2028, termination notices, FY2025 revenue, showroom count
- CARE Ratings, press release on Liberty Shoes Limited, December 2024 — September 1986 incorporation, five manufacturing units and locations, 106 lakh pairs annual capacity, sub-brand list
- Liberty Shoes, About Us — 1954 founding, founder names, four pairs a day, 1975 USSR export
- Screener, Liberty Shoes Ltd — FY2026 revenue and net profit, market capitalisation, promoter holding
- Liberty Shoes Online, Force 10 brand page — Force10 price bands and style counts, August 2026
- Liberty Shoes Online, Force 10 catalogue — size-tiered school shoe pricing and running shoe price, August 2026
- Business Standard, 22 September 2024 — Adesh Kumar Gupta’s removal, 5.83% holding, NCLT and NCLAT rulings
How we research and verify brand audits:
our methodology.
Liberty is a competent, honestly priced, deeply unfashionable shoe company that is very good at two things — children’s school footwear and industrial safety boots — and merely adequate at everything else. Buy it for those two things without hesitation. The corporate story is the uncomfortable part: a 70-year-old brand whose listed vehicle licenses its own name from family partnership firms and has received termination notices from partners in those firms. That has not touched product quality and there is no reason to expect it to. But it is the difference between a brand that is compounding and a brand that is holding on.
Liberty still makes the right ₹1,000 school shoe. It has not yet worked out who it is above that price.
