Bootstrapping tales of an ordinary Joe

Book review of Shoemaker: The untold story of the British family firm that became a global brand

If I were to gift a pair of Reebok sneakers to my teenaged son, he may be pleased. But will he be thrilled? I doubt it. However, to those of us who came into our teens in the 1980s, owning a pair of Reebok or Nike sneakers represented material nirvana.

 My maternal grandparents’ home is in a town in northern Bihar. The Nepal border is about 50 kilometres away. One of the highlights of our visit to them was a trip to Birganj, the nearest town in Nepal. That ramshackle town’s cachet lay in the fact that you could satiate