The document discusses the men's casualwear market in India, with a focus on t-shirts and activewear/sportswear. It notes that t-shirts dominate the men's casualwear category, comprising around 90% of the market valued at Rs. 5,980 crore in 2012. The activewear/sportswear segment is growing due to increased health consciousness and interest in fitness in India. Major international brands like Nike, Adidas and Reebok dominate this market segment. The document also discusses the growing casualwear market in India's corporate sector and the popularity of online shopping for casual and activewear.

1. 1
SCOPE | men’s casulawear
SCOPE: 2
MENSWEAR CASUALWEAR
Casualwear comprises categories such as T-shirts, denim, skirts, etc. while sportswear and active wear
are also closely related. High-performance fabrics like moisture management finish, dry-fit, etc. make up
a part of sportswear, and are therefore different from active wear. Again, active wear is usually used for
light jogging, yoga, walks, or simply lounging.
The segment, as a whole, is a high-growth category. The flexibility of knit fabric, along with its easy
maintenance and the comfort it offers, has enabled T-shirts to become one of the most popular
categories within casualwear. It has widespread acceptability among Indians across different income
groups, age brackets, and geographies.
Men’s T-shirts, valued at Rs 5,980 crore, dominate the category with a contribution of approximately 90
percent. The women’s market is, however, in the nascent stage primarily due to low adoption in semi-
urban and rural areas. Women’s T-shirts also face stiff competition from ethnic substitutes as salwar-
kameez. Further, denims are considered to be among the prominent products within casualwear. It is
worn by all three consumer segments, viz. men, women and children, and for almost all activities in a
day, e.g. eating out, going to college, clubbing, social outings, shopping, etc.
T-SHIRTS
T-shirts comprise one of the most dynamic categories within the fashion spectrum in India. The flexibility
of the knit fabric, coupled with easy-care and comfort properties, has made T-shirts a category with
widespread acceptability across consumers at varying income levels, in different age groups, and across
diverse geographies.
In 2012, men’s T-shirts contributed around 90% of the total T-shirts market of India, which was valued at
INR 5,980 crore. Again, although the women’s T-shirts segment has gained wide acceptability in urban
India, it still has low penetration in semi-urban and rural areas.
T-shirt is an attractive apparel category across consumer segments. The formal introduction of t-shirts
happened in 1913, t-shirts have graduated from being a uniform category to becoming a multipurpose,
multiuse, all-occasion apparel category across the globe. India too offers no exception to this trend.
India’s Rs 12,200 crore-worth t-shirt market is expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 12 percent to
reach Rs 21,250 crore by 2018.
This market, which includes knit shirts, polo shirts, knit tops, etc., is presently dominated by the men’s
and boys’ segments, which contribute 85 percent of the market share.
Comfort characteristics, easy-care properties, affordability, easy-design options using stripes and prints,
and a casual look are the major driving forces propelling the t-shirt market in India, which is a
predominantly young country with a median age of 27 years. Indian youth seek comfort and style in
their clothing, which is better met by t-shirts compared to woven shirts.

2. 2
SCOPE | men’s casulawear
T-shirts were preferred by children and teens only, but now a days people of all age-groups wears T-
shirts. Generally old age people prefer mostly collared T-shirts with branded names. Kids buy T-shirts of
styles Pokemon and Spiderman and with many cartoon themes.
T-shirts with plain colors like White, Bottle Green, Emerald Green, Kelly Green, Sky Blue, Navy, Orange,
Royal Blue, Sunflower, Heather, Ash, Olive, Khaki, Deep Navy, Navy, Aqua etc are preferred in office or
with the corporate logo or slogans. Today, a new corporate trend of dressing observed in India,
especially in the information technology industry where you can come with a blazer or sports jacket and
attend a meeting wearing T-shirt too.
The report says, there are two sub-categories in T-shirts market, one is active wear and second is casual
wear. Generally, people are likely to wear active wear brands for their morning jogging or routine work
while the casual T-shirts used for the purpose of informal clothing. Active wear clothing tends to have a
high recall because of many international brands have become more or less generic with active wear.
SPORTSWEAR AND ACTIVEWEAR
This category is dominated by the men’s market, with the women’s market showing positive signs of
accelerated growth. Overall, the growth of this segment’s is the result of an increase in income levels as
well as growing health consciousness among all sections of people. More and more Indians, especially in
the urban areas, are joining gyms and engaging in physical exercises to stay fit. There has also been a
greater interest in sports among the urban population. This has combined with the need of today’s
consumers to be aspirational and quality conscious, thus leading to the category increasing in both value
and volume, and brands continuing to remain important.
On average, consumers are not highly specific about the perfect attire for casual physical activities such
as walking or jogging. For more serious activities like gym, yoga, and various sports, they prefer to wear
specific sportswear. Therefore, innovations and value addition by apparel makers for such attire have
the potential to translate into higher price premiums. The presence of international sportswear brands
in India has also instigated the growth of this segment.
India is a predominantly young country with a median age of 26 years and 64 percent of the population
is under 35 years old. Even by 2023, the median age is expected to be only 29 years
There is also a deliberate attempt by consumers to wear different clothing on different occasions. The
fashion basket has, thus, expanded to include newer sub-categories like nightwear, party wear, Gym
wear, etc. Design-based assortments.

3. 3
SCOPE | men’s casulawear
CASUALWEAR AT WORK
As a result of modernization and the greater degree of acceptance of different personal preferences,
various companies across the country have begun allocating one day of the week, i.e. Fridays, for
casualwear, whereby employees can come to work wearing more comfortable casual clothing, which
often comprise an informal shirt and denim jeans.
Increased Casual and Sportswear Sales from High Digital Penetration
Online shopping provides the convenient remedy of buying products, which are then delivered at one’s
doorstep without the hassle of spending time in a physical store.
Innovations in sportswear mainly include new fabric finishes such as aroma fi nish, plasma fi nish,
moisture management finish, etc. Consumers are also displaying an inclination towards buying
environmental-friendly apparel. The demand for casualwear clothing made of organic cotton, recycled
apparel, etc. is on the rise.
FITNESS CONSCIOUS INDIA BOOST ACTIVE WEAR SEGMENT
Active sportswear in India came as an accepted norm for clothing with the advent of changing lifestyle
where people got accustomed to more of a morning, evening, leisure walk, and gym culture. With a very
thin line between sportswear and casualwear, active sportswear is more of making sportswear look chic
and wearable.
The active wear segment is estimated at 1.5-2 billion dollars (Rs 8,840 to 11,787 crores) in India growing
at 12-15 percent, year-on-year. With people taking to active lifestyle to remain fit, active wear segment
in India is on a growth track. Big sports brands like Adidas, Puma, Nike and Reebok have taken note of
this change and turned to be sports lifestyle brands in India.
There are different categories in the active wear space. There is performance wear, which is highly
technical and used for athletics, and there is what we called fitness inspired casual wear, which are
items that can be worn to the gym, or can be worn out during the day as well.
If you take sportswear manufacturers in India, you can count the good ones on your fingertips. A
country as big as India is being serviced for quality active sportswear by a handful of
companies.” “Around 20 percent of India’s active sportswear requirements are met by foreign brands
such as Nike, adidas, Reebok, PUMA, Fila, Speedo, etc. For the balance 80 percent, there is really not
much to choose from.” Witnessing such a huge gap in this category,
Currently, this space is dominated by international brands such as Nike, Puma and Reebok with no
competition from an Indian brand,” opines Sid Shah, President of the Wild East Group, who promote the
HRX brand.
Experts say the growth of this category is happening across markets from metros to Tier II, III towns.
Smaller towns with a smaller base are demonstrating higher growth rates.

4. 4
SCOPE | men’s casulawear
“Active wear has an extremely bright, though challenging future as customer expects global quality,
latest technology at affordable price points in India. Creating lines suited for Indian fits and disparate
weather conditions at these price points is a challenge. As more people get active specific niches are
bound to see a fillip,”
With comfort coming back into fashion, as style sheds its ‘tight is right’ rule, sportswear is a trend that is
here to stay. It is a market defined by a huge fan base and not by people who actually play serious sport.
We can target the fan base through other product categories like lifestyle, training, running and
outdoor.
GLOBAL BRANDS CAPTURE MARKET PULSE
ADIDAS
ADIDAS CELEBRATE ORIGINALITY
ADIDAS ORIGINALS
ADIDAS XPEDITION
ANIKET SATAM
NIKE
NIKE HERE I AM
NIKE RUNNING
NIKE STADIUMS
NIKEBIZ
NIKET & JAINEE
REEBOK
WILDCRAFT
British sportswear brand Umbro is betting big on the Indian market. In case of apparels, 80 percent of
the range consists of lifestyle products; the remaining are training and running categories. Key products
in the lifestyle range are vests, sleeveless tees, crew-neck tees and polos. These are well complimented
with an interesting range of shorts, three-fourth and full-length bottoms. a very good performance
range, which comes with a moisture management technology to help you keep dry and cool while
running and training.
‘Performance’ line has been fabricated with moisture management technology for keeping the body
cool and dry while doing intense training, running or playing sports. Some of the key features include
100 percent polyester fabric with mesh inserts, side vents and reflective detailing. These make the
garments suitable for high-performance sports and training needs of an athlete.
Menswear contributes to 80 percent sales, and the rest is by womenswear and kidswear. Nevertheless,
with more women showing their inclination towards sports and fitness, this equation is now changing.
Umbro is present across all major cities in India – New Delhi (NCR), Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Chennai,
Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kolkata,
Guwahati, Shillong, Siliguri, Panji, Indore, Bhopal, Nasik, Raipur, and Ranchi.
The brand is performing very well in all the major cities. It is doing extremely well in Chennai,
Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, and Lucknow.