Celebs bet big on apparel licensing in India

Since always, fashion has been one of the most favoured segments for licensors, for this segment allows a wider penetration as compared to others. Betting big on this space, a plethora of celebrities from Bollywood, sports and other genres have started their clothing lines through licensing and have entered the fashion segment.

Kriti Sanon launched her clothing line called Ms Taken; Tiger Shroff came up with Prowl, Jacqueline Fernandez launched Just F, Ranvijay Singh Singha announced Disrupt and Virat Kohli came up with One 8. Latest addition to this league is West Indian cricketer Dwayne Bravo. Popularly known as DJ Bravo, the cricketer has launched his apparel brand in India. Bravo, who enjoys a fan following in India too, is looking at monetising on his popularity here with the launch of his official merchandise under the brand ‘DJ Bravo 47’. “I have my biggest fan base in India. There are more people here who love me and I wanted to share something which is very close to my heart too,” Bravo told ET. The brand is co-owned by Bravo and Singapore-based celebrity apparel company 3 Big Dogs.

Cornerstone Sports, which manage Bravo in India, is assisting in the marketing and distribution of the brand in India. Initially, t-shirts for men, women and kids are being launched in the market with price ranging from Rs 1,900 to Rs 2,200. In six months’ time, the brand will be getting into track suits, hats and accessories too, said Luke Keech, MD, 3 Big Dogs. “We are in talks with some large ecommerce platforms and a few organised retail players for selling products. Currently, the products are available online,” Keech said.

A relatively new brand, DJ Bravo 47 has already started selling in Australia, South Africa, The Caribbean and the US. Bravo is hopeful of selling over 200,000 units in a year and is going to perform in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad to promote the brand. The Indian merchandise market is still in its infancy and very few celebrity-driven brands have succeeded in this space. Traditionally, glamour was associated with Bollywood and thus a lot of actos launched their clothing line, like HRX by Hrithik Roshan and recently Prowl and Just F by Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez.