Our 2 Year Break Amidst The Rise Of Athleisure Trend - Part 1
The next line about our business will blow your mind.
As a company, the last product that we sold was in the summer of 2017. Yes, it has been 2 years since we made a sale.
The time when we were operational, we had achieved a level of acceptance in the market.
Around 5000 people who had tried our products were really happy to support us and wanted more.
Our path was crystal clear from there -
- Repeat the stock
- Change few colors
- Sell t-shirts
- Make profit.
But as clear as the plan was, it was equally dissatisfying.
Reasons:
- We did not want to become an entity which sells only t-shirts. We wanted to present something which was never seen before from an Indian brand and something which puts a smile on your face the moment you wear it for the first time.
- Plain and simple, we weren't proud of what we were making. Our genesis was right, but the execution was wrong.
This meant only one thing - that we had to choose the less obvious and forbidden road for a startup -
STOP SELLING
We did not think twice before stopping and going back to the drawing board.
We stopped selling at a time when the rise of athleisure trend was at its peak. If you follow this industry or if you are a fitness expert/enthusiast you would understand how 2016 onward has been for the athleisure industry.
As a company, this was a suicide, but with right utilization of resources, a great team and with a lot of support around us, we kept on going.
Restart:
We started by going to the experts and customers to understand from their point of view as to what was lacking from our product. Why was it that products from Indian brands were not able to make an impact in people's life like our international counterparts.
There were obvious flaws that we already knew, and they were repeatedly validated by people during our research, but there was one thing in particular which everyone pointed out as a huge difference between established brands and the new ones, and that was the 'handfeel' of the products.
They wanted a product which they could even wear outside the gym or running track without feeling like they were wearing an active t-shirt or a jogger, also without compromising on looks and functionality.
And honestly this was exactly in line with what we felt when we started the brand. The synthetic feel in currently available activewear/athleisure products is evident, and it did not resonate well with us.
In the industry, there is so much pressure to sell, clear stock, refill and sell again, that there is never enough time to do research.
This is where we found ourselves at leverage. We had already stopped selling, so we could spend time in research and make awe inspiring products before we came to market again.
And we did exactly that.
Nice
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