KOCHI: As it girds up its loins to carve a niche for itself in the sports apparel category in the country, Alcis Sports is set to launch its first mono-brand store at the Lulu Mall in Kochi, one of the largest malls in India by the end of this month.With a target turnover of around `30 crore from 10 crore now, the Noida-based performance wear brand, which is transforming rubbish into clothing, is looking to grow this category by 4-5 times by 2020 by reshaping marketing efforts to be more millennial-focused.
“Being an Indian homegrown brand, our strengths are manufacturing prowess, aggressive pricing, a wide range of functional and fashionable products and technology driven performance. We see ourselves as a challenger brand and to tap the emerging potential of the Indian sportswear market, we are planning to increase our production four-fold this financial year,” said Ravish Nanda, Director, Alcis Sports and also the first person to develop the Indian Premier League (IPL) team uniforms in 2008 for 4 Reebok-sponsored teams adding the company is targeting the 12-25-year-old segment aggressively.
The company’s biggest market is north India, followed by the western and southern parts of the country. “With this launch, we want to strengthen our presence in the South,” said Nanda.Explaining the manufacturing process for the entire Wonder Tee and Wonder Polo range, which are made from recycled polyester or R-PET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate), Nanda said eight plastic bottles are used to make each T-shirt. These mainly comprise recyclable material used for soda bottles, water bottles, food jars etc, making it an environment-friendly, cost-effective and safe product.
The making of a Wonder Tee is typically a 2-3 month process, he said. “While R-PET clothing is largely encouraged by international brands, its usage is still in its infancy in India as very few local players are doing this currently,” he said adding the trend is positive and catching up.