A winning Attiitude

Attiitude, born out of social media, is a disruptive brand propelled by the new-age consumer. People everywhere are ditching the mainstream in favour of fashion that appeals to their individual tastes. Betting big on this trend, Attiitude aims to be the top player in the Indian alternative menswear fashion within a year.

Those who have an ear to the ground would have noticed a growing phenomenon in recent times - the rise of alternative fashion across the world. People everywhere are ditching the mainstream in favour of fashion that appeals to their individual tastes. Gone are the days of fashion labels imposing their viewpoint on consumers. Gone, too, is the might of traditional media. New-age brands are brought alive and kept afloat largely by the power of social media.

An audacious example is Attiitude, a brand made popular by the French underground culture. What began as an underground movement is now surfacing as a global fashion symbol, having racked up one million followers on social media.

The journey of Attiitude started in 2015 in London and over the last year, it has rapidly connected in both spirit and mindset of the gen-next. The double “I” in Attiitude signifies a reinforcement of individuality; an individuality that defies norms and rules of regularity and standardization, and redefines the possible and the impossible. In its drive to promote an alternative lifestyle, Attiitude has forged  associations with more than 50 icons from 20 different countries like Brazilian freestyle footballer Adonias Fonseca, French Skater Jules Von, French Rapper Gal-Gal, Russian Futsal Team, Canadian Heavy Metal Band Skull Fist, Nigerian Rapper Deen, Australian BMX Biker Mark Freeman, Swedish Futsal Player Emil, IPL Gujarat Lions unorthodox bowler Shivil Kaushik and many others.

“Our core target group of the brand is between 18 and 25 years who celebrate unique points of view and self-expression,” shares Attiitude CEO. The regular collections t-shirts prices start at Rs 999 and the hoodies are priced at Rs 2,499 onwards. Besides, the premium collections t-shirts start at Rs 1,999 and the hoodies prices start at Rs 3999.

In the first phase, the company is launching longline tees, hoodies, joggers, sweatshirts and denim bottoms and jackets. In the second phase, it will be launching back-packs, perfumes, leather jackets and accessories.

MENSWEAR SHOWING STRONG GROWTH

Menswear category is slated to register growth of 3 percent per year with a market size of $570 billion and annual revenues of $333 billion, according to a recently released report by Fashionbi. The credit for this stupendous performance goes to the consumers going digital and adopting e-commerce as their favoured choice. Fashionbi found that over the last three years, e-commerce has grown by a whopping 127 percent. With size and revenue on an upswing along with increased consumer spending, menswear has witnessed 18% uptick in purchases over the last five years. Today’s youth is not restricted to basic functionality; they are coming of age with latest style and trends, marking their bold statements.
 

Meanwhile, in India, menswear fashion has been on an upswing and is expected to be so over the next year. With the inflation rate under control, Indian consumers will have more money at their disposal to spend. Besides, the Indian consumer base is still very young, with the majority below 35 years. These young urban consumers – the India gen-next – will drive the growth of menswear products in the coming years.
This clearly is great news for brands like Attiitude – which is fast becoming apart of the urban lifestyle, particularly the alternative space.

 WAY FORWARD

As far as Indian market is concerned, menswear fashion has shown a strong retail value growth and is expected to continue to perform well over the next years.” With more and more young Indian men becoming more fashion-savvy, and a strong bias toward self-expression emerging, Attiitude is here to stay. And become the brand of preference when it comes to fashion that embraces the unconventional,” concludes the CEO.

----------------Q&A---------------

 “We are a men’s only alternative fashion brand”

What about the mystery surrounding the CEO of Attiitude? Why is he an anonymous figure?

Attiitude is anything but a traditional brand. It is born of the underground culture and is popular in circles that matter only through the power of social media. Fittingly enough, it doesn’t matter who the CEO of Attiitude is. What matters is the connect that the brand forges with its people. That is why the idea of a masked CEO. It’s our way of staying true to the underground culture.
 

What were the initial hiccups? How did you overcome them?
Setting up a world-class team who understands our philosophy was a big challenge. As the brand was born out of social media movement, the team and the vendors had to adapt to the demands and requirements of this new age fashion.
It took us 3 months and 700 logo variations to finalize our logo. Also, initially it was difficult to convince vendors to work on our unique designs as they are used to certain regular design manufacturing. However, now we have gradually built a dependable base of world-class vendors who supply to other top global brands. This whole process of short-listing the best talents and best vendors to work for us took almost 6 to 8 months. However, now we have vendors, models, stylists and other talents from the fashion and garments industry vying to work with us.

How have you positioned yourself differently from your competition?

We are a men’s only alternative fashion brand with over one million followers already waiting for our collections.
We are introducing something, which was never attempted before, especially in the Indian market. No startup menswear brand anywhere in the world has managed to have one million following within 5 months of the brand’s introduction. Having said this, there is a strong demand from our female followers to introduce a women’s collection, hence we are introducing certain styles which are unisex. But, as a brand, we will always remain a menswear alternative brand.

What about online presence?

Our products will be sold on Attiitude.com and Asos.com in the international markets and on Myntra, Flipkart and Amazon, in India.

What lies ahead for you in the future?

We are aiming to be the top player in the Indian alternative menswear fashion within a year. Globally, we are aiming to become a market leader in the alternative menswear fashion segment, within the next 3 years.