HRX’s growth amid the pandemic, upcoming partnerships
In a recent conversation with YourStory’s Daily Dispatch, Afsar Zaidi, Co-founder and CEO, HRX, shares valuable insights into the brand’s journey through the pandemic and future plans for expansion.
Homegrown clothing and accessories brand, co-owned by popular Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, has grown in popularity over the last year despite the COVID-19 circumstances.
The brand has crossed Rs 500 crore in turnover in the ecommerce space, with sales of its apparel, accessories and footwear contributing greatly in the pandemic year. The brand is anticipating a growth upwards of 60 percent in FY21, shares Afsar Zaidi, Co-Founder & CEO, HRX, in a conversation with Daily Dispatch’s Priya Sheth.
HRX by Hrithik Roshan
HRX products are available on platforms such as Myntra and Flipkart across various categories, with the brand blooming in the apparel, footwear and athleisure space. Besides active wear, the brand also provides HRX workouts on popular Indian health and fitness platform, Cult.fit.
According to Afsar, the pandemic encouraged a great proportion of the population to become at-home athletes since people started investing more time on themselves, moving towards a better and healthier lifestyle.
“Track pants and tees became a very necessary part of daily life, and those are the products which saw a significant increase in sales,” says Afsar.
Footwear as a category also grew during the pandemic, and a significant increase in sales was noticed in that area too. HRX had plans to launch the Sports and Fitness Equipment category in 2020 but due to certain constraints, this category was launched in May/June 2021.
Afsar mentions that HRX as an idea started with Hritik Roshan. The fitness conscious actor inspired the birth of the brand, and his ideas and beliefs went on to form the foundation of the brand.
“It was a dream that he shared with us, and he allowed us to use his learnings and his approach to life and give it a physical manifestation which is HRX,” says Afsar.
He adds that the brand has some very interesting upcoming partnerships in the pipeline, and instead of fundraising, the brand is looking for more synergizing partnerships in the future, which Afsar believes, will help HRX to grow to its fullest potential.
“In the next couple of months, we are going to be announcing a very interesting partnership with a leading Indian brand in the fitness technology space,” concludes Afsar.
Edited by Anju Narayanan