Our 2 Year Break Amidst The Rise Of Athleisure Trend - Part 2

Hey, good to see you again. If you are here, then I believe you have already read part 1 of this article. If not, then you can do so quickly by clicking here.

We were 3 days into our hiatus and product research phase when we got the first query from one of our customers asking why we have stopped selling.

We had a good conversation with him. We shared our vision, workout tips and went on with our lives.

But that was just a glimpse of what was about to come.

A couple of months into the break and we were getting repeated queries about the current status of the products and future of our company.

There were 2 positives out of this overwhelming customer curiosity.

1. We were being held accountable, so we could not slack.
2. People were deeply curious and vested into our products based on our first attempt.

Our research phase was still underway. We started conversations with some of the world's best yarn, fabric and garment manufacturers.

As a startup it is not always easy to convince people with a grand product vision, but with true conviction in the vision, once you get them on board, there is no looking behind.

We found few extremely supportive and knowledgeable set of people who were ready to help us in our research with fabrics, treatments and colors.

We started by examining a variety of performance yarns and fabrics. The first few lots were getting rejected by the team left, right and center.

The 5 fabrics that we selected and envisioned to make our products were solely shortlisted based on their ability to withstand resistance and endurance training, performance features and human preference of touch and feel.

But this was just the start.

Then came the period of putting these fabrics through quality tests, feature tests and real human training.

We made few samples and tested them for fit and performance with coaches and personal trainers in our home city (beautiful Bangalore) to get their feedback and altered it from further. This process went on for a while.

Once we knew that the fit and performance of the products was good to go, we reiterated the test for touch and feel of the products, because that was the whole idea of doing this research. We wanted to make one of the best feeling products that is available in the market.

We tested the products by taking them physically to more than 100 people from fitness, fashion and e-commerce industry.

And 10 out of 10 times, people approved with awe.

"It reminds me of Adidas US"

"You guys have cracked it"

"Products are beautiful"

"Now we know why it took so long"

"So you weren't lying on the phone about the big deal!"

This was the time when we knew that we were ready to reveal our products to the outside world.

Well, we opened our online store zymrat.com to everyone last week and the response so far by early customers for the design, look and feel of entire collection has been phenomenal.

If you haven't checked us out yet then head to our online store now to see the collection and give one of the products a spin. You will be amazed.