Undercolors First Active Wear Range for India

At a time when active wear is getting popular by the hour. It has found its niche almost everywhere from the locker room of the gyms to yoga drills to college campuses, United Colors of Benetton launched their active wear collection for India recently. The collection is functional yet lightweight, the styles for active wear are both versatile and suitable for a high intensity workout. The range includes leggings, sports bras, shorts, hoodies, shorts and tees.

The range uses new fabrics developed specifically for sweat-absorption, odour prevention and stretch. With Benetton’s signature block colours and subtle use of logos, the collection is ideal for women and men of all ages looking for an affordable and on-trend look.

Benetton Active wear is lightweight keeping in mind the functional and thermal considerations required to make an active wear comfortable. They endeavour to adapt with consumer’s changing lifestyle. With its latest range of active wear the brand has made a conscious approach to bring inspiration and innovation in the world of smart working out, truly building itself as a leisure brand.

Benetton Group is one of the best-known fashion companies in the world, present in most important markets with a network of about 5,000 stores.

We present excepts of our interview with Mr. Parveen Sharma the G.M. Undercolors on the launch of active wear

LnL : Why did you develop this category? Pl. share idea behind launching Active Wear in India?

Parveen Sharma : Nowadays people are very conscious about their fitness and the trend of walking/jogging and Gym, is growing and there is a dearth of good range of active wear products in the Indian market. This inspired us to launch this category. Fitness is a wave that’s everywhere. So to cater the fitness conscious consumers we had developed this category which incorporates the sophisticated sense of style.

Who is this activewear for? (T.G.)

Benetton is a Youth brand driven by the need to look yuppy and fit. Naturally our T.G. is the young and fitness freak audience from the age group of 20 to 40 years.

When and where did you launch this product?  How do you plan to communicate your product to the customer?

Benetton Active wear has been launched recently all across our stores as part of our SS17 collection in India. We have run ad campaigns in Print media, followed by Social Media engagements, with in-shop & out-shop brandings etc.

Pl. describe the range  just launched?  (Please mention the products for girls and boys separately, the sizes, material, colours and mrp)

In Ladies we have launched Sports Bra, Tank Tops, Hoodies, Shorts & Boy shorts In Men’s- we have the Tank Tee, Half sleeve tee, Shorts & Hoodie all these are available in 4 sizes – S, M, L, XL. The material is superior quality of quick drying Polyamide/ Polyester/ Spandex in basic colors like- Black, Grey, Navy, Blue and few fashion colors like- pink, light green, purple etc.. The price range of these products is from Mrp from INR 699 to INR1799

Is there any concept behind choosing the unique colours. ?

We have always laid emphasis on colours and Benetton is known for colors so a Benetton Undercolors brands always tends to offer unique colors, besides we also have the usual solid colors.

What are the unique features of the Active range?

They are seamless, so no scratchy feeling of seams and it is very comfortable due to the lightweight and stretch polyamide fabric, they look trendy and it is adapted to suit the Indian climate.

How have you planned the roll out of this range- The distribution?

The product is already available through our stores and our channel partners through the MBO’s also. The distribution is through the regular wholesale distribution to EBO and MBO’s.

Are you planning to have this range on Online platform as well?

Yes, very shortly we will roll out this product on all the major online platforms soon.

Could you describe the channel response to this range?

The response has been just too stupendous for words. The product and the pricing are very lucrative.

What kind of turnovers you want to achieve through this range? How much will it add to the Topline of Benetton Sales?

We are looking forward to have overall 20% contribution for Undercolors overall sales and 2-3% of overall Benetton India sales.

Though the category is quite new, but there are several big players and several unorganised players in this segment, how you plan to tackle this?

We treat our consumers and competitors very seriously, our products are absolute value for money and we believe in getting it better day by day, Benetton is known for innovations.

As a product development head how do envisage this category going ahead? In terms of innovation and it becoming a lifestyle product?

On the basis of learning from the market we are well capable of launching new product lines as well as upgrading an existing one, in terms of product performance and conformance.