Prada Launches Kolhapuri-Inspired Sandals, Funds Artisan Training in India

Prada turned the Kolhapuri chappal fight into a product and a program. Its limited-edition sandals, part of the “PRADA Made in India x Inspired by Kolhapuri Chappals” project instituted in December 2025, went on sale in 40 selected Prada stores and on Prada.com, made in India by artisans from Maharashtra and Karnataka.

That matters because this was never just about a pretty flat. Kolhapuri chappals have held Geographical Indication status since 2019, and the silhouette belongs to eight districts spread across Maharashtra and Karnataka, including Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Belagavi, Bagalkot, Dharwad and Bijapur. An authentic pair is hand-crafted, leather-based and built to age in, not out, which is exactly why luxury keeps circling back to it every summer: the shape is easy, open, and quietly sharp with everything from crisp tailoring to cut-off denim.

Prada’s new push is also a very deliberate answer to the mess it made in 2025. Its Spring-Summer 2026 menswear show showed sandals that were widely read as Kolhapuri-inspired but were first described only as “leather sandals,” triggering accusations of cultural appropriation and GI-rights concerns from artisans and fashion voices in India. Prada later acknowledged the footwear was inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear with a centuries-old heritage. The backlash escalated fast enough that Lalit Gandhi of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture wrote to Prada, while BJP MP Dhananjay Mahadik led a delegation of artisans to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. A Public Interest Litigation filed in the Bombay High Court in July 2025 sought compensation for artisans, damages for unauthorized commercial exploitation and a public apology. It also said the sandals were priced at over 1 lakh a pair and first shown in Milan on June 22, 2025.

Now Prada is trying to build something sturdier than a runway apology. The company said the new training program will be fully funded by Prada, including through proceeds from the sandals, and will run for three years in six-month modules. It is designed to reach 180 artisans ages 18 to 45, with training delivered alongside the National Institute of Fashion Technology and the Karnataka Institute of Leather & Fashion Technology. Prada says the goal is to move makers beyond product development and into market readiness, with digital skills and commercial awareness baked in.

That is the real tension here: a global house has put a widely recognized Indian craft into luxury circulation, but it is now also putting money, structure and visibility back into the ecosystem that created it. Whether that lands as repair, strategy or both, Kolhapuri’s influence is no longer fringe. It is back in the room, and Prada is paying to keep it there.