Despite the pandemic-induced challenging times in the last two years, particularly for the apparel industry, the athleisure segment has been able to thrive in the market particularly owing to the changing consumer mindset. Apart from the established players in the industry, many upcoming players like Crepdog Crew, Zymrat, SATVA, Soul Space, Stretchery, Ochre Athletica, etc. are also gaining the desired eyeballs. 

This notable spike in demand in the last two years has been because meetings and conferences were taking place mostly in front of the screen at home, so sweatpants, leggings, and loungewear have become the usual pieces for professional wardrobes. This is particularly apparent from the demand these athleisure brands are getting.
 
Let’s take Zymrat for instance, the brand has been able to clock 10x growth in the last 14 months in revenue and expects to achieve a similar growth target over the next 12 months as well. Similar successes have been experienced by other athleisure brands as well. Newer brands like Ochre Athletica have also immediately got their desired market space in the segment. 
 
The athleisure market (globally) is expected to grow by $80.74 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 4 percent during the forecast period (according to a report by Technavio). Given the stated growth, athleisure brands are leaving no stone unturned to capture a piece of the pie. 

Several athleisure brands are inclined towards the fitness community rather than generally the masses. For example, Ochre Athletica strongly caters to the CrossFit community. Overall, the target consumer base of the segment ranges from the athletic community to everyday individuals. 

Understanding The Market

If we look at the Indian scenario, India’s athleisure market is growing at 18-20 percent currently and is expected to touch Rs 54,000 crore, or roughly $8 billion, by 2020, as per a report by Deloitte India. Building proper optics, a loyal consumer base, and effective supply are some of the major challenges that the brands have been working upon. 

For instance, in the last 6 months, Zymrat has been working to streamline a large part of its supply chain, aligned with the demand that the brand is seeing. The company expects this will result in a non-stop supply of inventory and non-stop growth.

“We are an innovation-led performance wear company and we believe in solving problems. So, all our developments are led by identifying problems that the community is facing right now and working on the solution for it,” said Ujjawal Asthana, Co-Founder & CEO, Zymrat.  

In fact, since it’s a new segment, brands are obviously focusing heavily upon R&D to deeply understand the market and consequently bring the right line-up of products for the market. 

Jeevika Tyagi and Kanupriya Mundhra, Founders at Aastey shared, “We have researched and innovated to create fabrics for the best athleisure experience. Our first all-day collection caters to all Indian and south-east Asian body types with an expansive size chart created for 16 sizes. We have also launched a gender-fluid jacket that can be worn by people who do not adhere to any gender stereotypes.” 

Again, Radhika Shanker and Aditi Kakker, Co-founders at Ochre Athletica stated, “As women in fitness, we had always struggled to find activewear that could withstand our rigorous training demands, look aspirational while solving for most common fit-related problems faced by the average Indian woman.”

Currently, many brands to get an edge in the market, are strongly relying on celebrities to give them a marketing push like SKULT (By Shahid Kapoor, One 8 (By Virat Kohli), True Blue (Sachin Tendulkar), and HRX (By Rithik Roshan), amongst others.

Harsha Razdan, Partner and Head, Consumer Markets and Internet Business, KPMG in India stated, “Athleisure has been ruling the aisle for quite some time now as consumer mindset has significantly drifted towards comfort, functionality, versatility, and flexibility. That said, luxury athleisure has steadily gained traction with a rise in focus on health and well-being." 

Fundamental Challenges in The Sector

Despite the rising demand, the current status of the segment clearly entails that the industry has a long way to go with some major fundamental problems in the way that it needs to weed out before it becomes a more commonplace category.
 
Razdan shared, “A major challenge faced in this segment is the sourcing of raw materials, as India is traditionally a cotton-based country. Our capabilities and infrastructure of high-quality polyester processing units are limited, thereby increasing dependence on imports from other countries such as China, Hong Kong, etc."

The lack of high-quality polyester is in fact the athleisure sector's biggest impediment in Indian markets. Thus, in order to succeed in the long term for the athleisure brands, building polyester processing facilities is a must.

Also, homegrown brands continue to compete with large international brands in this segment who have been in the play for a long, which is a persistent tussle in the entire apparel sector in India. Indian brands have long been trying to catch up with the foreign brands that bring fashionable designs that are most in-demand from the consumers. 
 
Radhika Shanker and Aditi Kakker, Co-founders, Ochre Athletica shared: “We take pride in being a truly Indian brand from source to store – however, in our efforts to handpick fabric and use more sustainable materials, there is a lack of support from manufacturers with respect to sourcing the relevant fabrics owing to the lack of demand for the same. It is also a challenge to create demand for more conscious clothing being sold by a fairly new brand trying to create activewear that lasts you for a lifetime as compared to inexpensive options by fast-fashion brands amongst the Indian consumer."  

One way to get an advantage is to use domestic market knowledge and reach the rural market and small cities by educating the young generation on various kinds of sports as well as yoga in order to enlarge the activewear market size. Also,  they need to keep pace with the latest technologies used in the manufacturing of an athleisure product.

Not to mention the challenges that pandemic has brought to the sector. Ankita Riva, Co-Founder & COO, Zymrat explaining it further, said, “With recent and new challenges that COVID has thrown at us, the global supply chain has been impacted and continues to see delays and ever-increasing prices of transportation and raw materials. We have been mitigating these using multiple manufacturing and sourcing mechanisms."

Expected Trends In The Future

Given that there is much to explore in this rapidly booming sector, several trends are expected going forward. A major but obvious trend would be an increase in the range of athleisure products in the market, as the consumer demand increases.

Jeevika Tyagi of Aastey shared, “We want to further diversify in the athleisure market. We have spent a whole year researching to achieve internationally competitive products so that they can be accessible in our country without a premium price. We plan to expand this range of high-quality athleisure suited to the Indian market."

“We will keep launching industry-first products in India for the community of fitness and active lifestyle. We want to bring our athleisure line in front of our users as soon as possible because we strongly believe that athleisure is being overlooked as of now by just focusing on SKUs,” Ankita Riva further added. 

“Going forward, we could expect this trend to stay with changing lifestyles, increasing fitness and health awareness and the new work from home culture. It is imperative for brands to note that consumers are becoming more environmentally and socially conscious, and prefer to purchase from purpose-driven brands - the trend is expected to act as a core differentiator for brands and retailers in the future,” Razdan concluded.