Aditya Birla Fashion enters men’s innerwear and athleisure wear

To unveil new range of Van Heusen premium wear with smart-tech features

Bengaluru: Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) stages an entry into a new business segment – the Rs.7-000-crore men’s innerwear and athleisure market that is growing at 13-14 per cent a year.

The company is ready to introduce a new range of Van Heusen premium innerwear and athleisure wear (multi-purpose wear) in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad next week, with plans to launch it pan-India next year.

The new innerwear range priced upwards of Rs.135 up to Rs.599, comprises four collections – Classic, Platinum, Signature and Active. The vests, trunks, briefs and boxers in the collections are imbued with functional features such as: all-day freshness, ultra softness, flexi stretch, swift dry; and will be available across 300 Van Heusen exclusive stores, 300 Planet Fashion stores and premium multi-brand outlets. The collections will also be available in leading departmental stores and e-commerce sites from October.

“This launch has been in the works for the last 12 months. We started with understanding customer needs/pain-points, compared to innerwear products in India and abroad, worked on setting up a vendor network, built a team with experience in innerwear from India and abroad and studied retailers’ stocking requirements. We will be launching 4-5 exclusive Van Heusen innerwear stores, spanning 600-800 sq ft in each city,” Ashish Dikshit, Business Head, Madura Fashion &; Lifestyle, ABFRL, told BusinessLine.

Stating that the last 4-5 years has witnessed rapid growth in premium men’s innerwear market, he said: “We did experiment with men’s innerwear 10 years ago in our Van Heusen and Peter England stores, but the market was not ready to pay a premium for innerwear, back then.”

Athleisure wear
The company is also introducing another fast growing category - Athleisure, which is multi-purpose wear that goes from gym to street to couch. “You can take a run in the morning, wearing track pants and tees and head out to have breakfast somewhere without having to change,” said Dikshit. The Van Heusen athleisure collection, including vests, tees, shorts, track pants, joggers and travel pants, is priced from Rs.259 to Rs.1,899 and comes with smart tech features such as quick dry, stain release, anti-stat, colour fresh, soft smoothness, all-day fresh; making the crossover between fitness and fashion.

Van Heusen is one of the four brands of Madura Fashion &; Lifestyle that enjoys MRP sales in excess of Rs.1,000 crore each. Synonymous with ‘Power Dressing,’ Van Heusen is a work wear brand that straddles the entire spectrum of occasions from casuals, to ceremonial and party wear. ABFRL hosts India’s largest fashion network with over 7,000 points of sale across 375 cities and towns, which include more than 2,000 exclusive ABFRL brand outlets.