How Homegrown D2C Fashion Brand Freakins is Planning to go Global

As an experiment, Sachin Shah and Shaan Shah invested Rs 10 lakh to design and manufacture a few denimwear samples and tried selling them in the market. On getting a good response, they decided to launch their own collection in November 2018 and now, this homegrown brand, Freakins, is available across the country, clocking a turnover of Rs 12 crore. 

Being a young start-up, the brand has gained a lot of recognition in the country by offering trendy styles in denim with international quality for women.

“In 2018, the brand was started with a goal to use stock fabric. What began as an experiment, eventually, sparked huge potential. So much so that, today we work with over 10,000 SKUs and over 100 fabrics. We initially introduced it as an alternative strategy to utilize the unused fabric at fraction of the price. Our brand language has struck a chord with many individuals across the country and today we have managed to carve a niche of our own without comprising our core values,” explains Shaan Shah, Co-Founder, and CEO of Freakins.

In just three years, the brand’s strategy has evolved tremendously. From going completely automated in terms of research, to launching fit stores across the country and introducing home trials during the pandemic, the brand’s growth trajectory is on an upward spike.
 
“Going ahead, as a short-term plan of say 1-2 years, we plan on opening a few make-shift concept stores/ pop-ups or even retail outlets. We have also begun strategizing around launching ‘Home Trial Vans’ that would be covering services pan-India,” asserts Shah.

Winning Consumers

Freakins is a fully digitally-abled brand. Instead of just fixating on sales, the marketing strategy of the brand is wired differently. 

“We strive to curate an immersive experience for our customers so they can engage with us in a way that they have never done with any other brand. We cultivate a relationship with our customers in order to create a little community of our own - one that is transparent and has a free flow of dialogue. And consequently, that nurtures a loyal target audience for us. Additionally, as a start-up, we tend to keep ourselves as frugal as we can, to optimize our budgets in the best possible way,” states Shah.

“However, the pandemic has helped us accelerate our plans. With the onset of the pandemic, as we geared into a digitally fronted society - we witnessed a sudden surge in online shopping. The only road block for us was to work on a much faster delivery turnaround time to fully maximize our brand potential,” adds Shah.

Their winning strategy? Turning around design to delivery in under 2 weeks, with a full vertical set-up!

“We are continuously working on a faster delivery timeline, improving our quality of fabrics and innovating newer trends whilst understanding the needs of our target market,” he shares.

Future Plans

To expand the category going ahead, the brand has already begun fabricating a line out of knits and woven fabrics that it would be launching very soon. Along with this, it is also looking at expanding into the athleisure and accessories segment. 

“For the future, we will expand our existing product categories. Additionally, we wish to take Freakins global - the Middle East and Australia are the top two landscapes that we want to begin with. The omnichannel strategy then is to establish ourselves as a lifestyle brand rather than a generic fast-fashion label,” Shah concludes.