In a tearing hurry to catch that flight, only to find the second pair

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of shoes not fitting into your baggage? Familiar plight, right? Help is at hand, or rather the foot.

Innovation Design Engineering (IDE), the industrial design division of Tata Elxsi, has developed a travel shoe that can be folded flat. It is so flat that it can fit into a corner of your laptop bag. The shoe is developed at its Innovation Labs in Bangalore, and it hopes to appeal to the rushed corporate traveller.

Tata Elxsi is scouting for companies that can manufacture the footwear on a commercial scale. Soon it may partner with Nike, Puma and Liberty for the project, company officials told Financial Chronicle.

The shoe has the look of trendy sportswear, and is made of cloth and plastic. Prototypes for both genders are ready to run.

The Bend-it-like-Beckham shoe is only a slice of the company's plans to look at additional revenue streams. The company plans to provide design solutions to retail companies as well, and is also exploring aerospace interior design services. IDE, thus far, had largely focused on consumer products such as packaging, electronics, appliances and the automotive sector.

“We believe that the future of retail design lies in integrating design and technology,” said Narendra Ghate, senior manager, IDE. “We expect retail design projects to contribute about 15-20 per cent to our revenues, two years from now.”

The company is leveraging its experience of designing car interiors to target aerospace. “There are various elements of interiors such as the seats, side panels, roof panels and colour schemes that can be customised and designed to make the aircraft look different,” added Ghate.

At present, IDE accounts for 10 per cent of Tata Elxsi’s revenues, which touched Rs 408 crore in fiscal 2008. The other business divisions of Tata Elxsi are product design, visual computing labs and system integration.

Expecting a windfall, IDE also plans to increase its headcount to 400 in two years, from a present strength of 55 employees. The company competes with global design houses such as IDEO, Design Bridge and Fitch Design. Prominent clients include Procter & Gamble, UB group, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Tata Motors and Nissan among others.