Sport merchandise start-up Zeven to open brand stores

Home-grown, multi-sport, footwear and apparel start-up Zeven, which went live with its e-commerce site Zevenworld.com in January, is preparing to open four exclusive brand stores this year. Targeted at the 16-80 age group, Zeven is adopting an omni-channel approach to reach its customers.

The first 3,000 sq ft store designed to be a ‘Sports Adda’ or hangout for a variety of sports and sporting activities, including cricket, hockey, football, speed walking, running and gym, will open in Bengaluru in July, followed by stores in Mumbai and Delhi. The stores will be set up at a cost of ₹1.5 crore, excluding the cost of in-store merchandise.

Co-founded by Hemchandra Javeri and Mahesh Bhupathi with a seed investment of $5 million, Zeven has been designed for the Indian weather and terrain, keeping in mind the Indian body structure and socio-cultural factors around pursuing a sport.

The start-up has launched a footwear range designed in India and manufactured in China for cricket, running, speed-walking and working out at the gym. As the official kit-partners for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for IPL Season 9, an exclusive range of fan merchandise, ranging from caps, replica team jerseys, running and gym shoes for both men and women, has also been launched on the Zeven portal. The company’s apparel is designed and manufactured in India.

“The sports business in India presents a massive opportunity for us. The combined sales of the top four players in the domestic market – Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Puma – is ₹2,500 crore, just the tip of the iceberg. More important, they are not designed and created for Indian weather, terrain and body types and cater to just a miniscule segment of the country’s 200-million-strong middle class population. This is where Zeven steps in with products that are a perfect fit for Indians in fit, size and comfort at one-third or half the cost offered by the top four global brands,” Zaveri told BusinessLine .

It took the company over a year of consumer research and testing products with sportspersons and general consumers before the formal launch of Zeven in February. Zeven merchandise is also available on Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. Asked about plans to raise more capital, Javeri, without revealing the amount, said, “We have already raised Series A funding from an HNI who wishes to remain anonymous.” Created with a mission to transform sports in India by making active sport an integral part of Indian life, Javeri hopes that someday a billion Indians will take to some form of sport. Zeven has initiated the process with the launch of a community of active sportspersons on its portal which has garnered 2.25 lakh fans.

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