Bridging the gap in active wear through PROWL

Joining the list of celebrities like Hrithik Roshan and Virat Kohli, Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff has unveiled his first active lifestyle brand, PROWL, jointly with Mojostar. In a candid conversation with License India, Abhishek Verma, CEO of Mojostar spoke about the gap in the active wear segment, that lead to creation of the brand.

Excerpts: What’s the brand PROWL all about?

Prowl is an active wear brand. When we looked at active wear space, we realized there was a huge gap in the market when it comes to young consumers especially those between the age group of 18 to 25 years because most of the active wear available from the traditional brands are over technical and over specified. By this I mean that the products are for a particular sports or a particular kind of activity. Whereas at this age, the consumers are doing multiple activities and when they think about active wear, it is not just about going to gym, it is also about their regular life which is quite active. With that thought in mind, we realized that there is a big gap in this space and thus created PROWL. Also Tiger Shroff stands for two things – an amazing amount of fitness and dance. His fitness is not the one from gym, but is functional fitness. He can do those crazy splits, kicks and somersaults. We thought that there is very close link between Tiger’s brand of activity and movement and the consumer needs between the age brackets of 18 to 25.

What categories are being launched initially under the brand?

We are focused on active lifestyle so we will start with apparel and as we keep going on we will add other categories as well, but within the active lifestyle space. There would be a full range including different kinds of top wear, bottom wear. We are launching the collection only for boys as of now, but soon we will add girl’s line as well. The products are priced between INR 1,000 to INR 3,000.

Is this a start of new era in celeb licensing?

I think as far as we are concerned, I think in the country, authentic celebrity brands are at a very nascent stage. Even before celebrity licensing become a big thing, these celebrity brands need to be created and to grow to a certain level and to have a certain amount of brand pull. What we are attempting to do is to make sure that we are able to create brands which are very authentic to the celebrity, reflect their personality and way of life into the brand. One that receives significant consumer action, the licensing opportunities will be innumerous.

What has been the basic DNA for designing the range and what has been the contribution by Tiger Shroff?

There are a few elements. The brand will offer you a very good combination of style and functionality. So when you are 18 to 25, looking good is extremely important and activities keep on changing throughout the day. One wants something that can work for various kinds of intensity of activity, but at the same time look in accordance with the trends. That is our core design philosophy at PROWL. Tiger, being the co-owner of the brand, is setting a lot of guidelines, objectives and setting the tone right. Also when we design the clothes, Tiger suggests what can hinder the activities, what allows free moment etc. He suggest on both the styles and ability to affect the movement.

Initially Tiger Shroff was associated with celeb brand HRX…

That was some around 3 years ago and it was a small association he had for HRX. Now Tiger is creating his own brand, and his own set of consumers. As a part of this association, Tiger won’t be endorsing any other active wear brand now onwards.

So is HRX now a competitor to PROWL in active wear space?

We don’t think of competition. We think that HRX products have pretty much awaken the segment.

What Retail touch points are you tapping for PROWL?

We will retail through all the major eCommerce channels as well our own direct-to-consumers portal. We have plans for going offline as well, but not right now. That will happen from third year onwards.