Though the Kolkata Knight Riders team is disappointing its fans in the Indian Premiere League (IPL), the team’s merchandise, sponsored by sportswear brand Reebok, has earned a good fan following. The company has planned to launch Reebok Knight Riders exclusive stores in Delhi and Mumbai soon.
Confirming the news to Indiaretailing, Subhinder Singh, MD, Reebok, said: “The Reebok Knight Riders’ store in Kolkata is doing good business, and this year, we will roll out more such specialised stores only for the Kolkata team. We will soon set up two such stores Mumbai and New Delhi.” The stores will have an entire floor showcasing the merchandise collection of the team.
The merchandise of the Kolkata IPL team is earning a good number of consumers throughout the country. Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise includes jerseys, t-shirts, sneakers, caps, and accessories. Jerseys and t-shirts are the highest-selling merchandise so far. The Kolkata store has been retailing around eight to ten jerseys per day. Speaking about the shelf life of the merchandise, Singh said, “IPL is an ongoing process and will attract more fans with the passage of time.”
Reebok is also retailing merchandise for three other IPL teams that include Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
Reebok has also built up a lifestyle product portfolio for apparel, shoes and accessories. The portfolio includes a collection named after Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, jeans styled by cricketer MS Dhoni, a Bipasha Basu collection, and a Manish Arora collection.
“The lifestyle area will be a focused business for Reebok. This is due to the fact that the lifestyle element is now seeping into sports in India. We have started rolling out speciality lifestyle retail outlets, whose network will increase from the present seven stores to around 60 by year-end,” informed Singh.
Reebok currently claims to enjoy 51 per cent market share in the Indian sportswear market and operates around 675 stores across the country, which it plans to increase to 800 by this fiscal end.
– Satrajit Sen
