For streetwear brand VegNonVeg founders Anand Ahuja and Abhineet Singh, what started as a hobby project in 2016 has today turned into a cultural force with 5 lakh Instagram followers and a lucrative commerce with close to Rs 100 crore revenue.
Founded in 2016, by Anand Ahuja and Abhineet Singh, VegNonVeg is a sneaker brand launched with the aim of popularising sneaker culture in India. The brand name, which is an amalgamation of two opposite words, represents different perspectives or tastes bound together by the love for sneakers and street culture. Since its inception, the community-first sneaker and streetwear brand has evolved to become a cultural force that cultivates and shapes both sneakers and pop culture.
In an exclusive interaction, Abhineet Singh, Co-founder of VegNonVeg speaks about the brand’s journey, challenges, growth strategies and future plans. Edited excerpts…
What’s the story behind such an interesting name for a footwear brand?
The name has multiple layers to it. It comes with an idea of being inclusive having both veg and non-veg in the same word. We wanted to create a space for everybody, something that would be memorable and also has a connection to India. That’s where the two dots in the logo come from. It has also got that food connotation to it, the idea of inclusivity and pop culture.
Tell us about the brand’s journey.
It started with a lot of fun and discussion. In 2016, Anand and I decided to start a sneaker store. I think the name would have probably been just serendipitous because one of the first spaces that we looked at to start a sneaker store was one veg restaurant. Anand and I lived abroad. We went to college and then came back to India; I in 2008, and Anand in 2011. We couldn’t find a place to indulge in our hobby of finding shoes that had a story, a limited edition collaboration or ones with some crazy technology. At that time, nobody was servicing the niche we wanted to consume. Anand came from a retail background and I came from a design and communication background. So, that’s how we felt the need to start something that didn’t exist. Also, Anand was into vegan food while I was the opposite. It also made sense to coin a new term based on that.
What makes your footwear different?
We are sort of Asia’s neighbourhood stores for Nike, which means that we carry a certain product that even the bigger stores such as Nike, in India don’t feature right now. This is similar to other brands like Adidas and we are like a fashion specialty category. We have access to products that you won’t find in regular retail stores. The product offering is unique. Our brand is not necessarily a place where you come to buy sneakers, it’s one where you come to consume the entire lifestyle around it. Whether it is love for sneakers, streetwear, books or even hanging out with the like-minded crowd, we have it all.
Tell us about your first store and the first product you sold.
We started with the idea of always having an omnichannel approach. At that time, our retail store might have had 20 products on the shelf. The first product was a pair of Adilette, and I was the first customer as were testing the POS and other things. So, the transaction was successful and I kept the product with me. Now, we carry close to 200 pairs, but those 20 pairs are super curated. Today, we have retail contracts with all the brands we work with.
How has the growth been?
We have experienced exponential growth over the last four years to almost Rs 100 crore in revenue. In the last seven years, we’ve seen a significant amount of growth, an exciting thing is that the community has grown as we have over 5 lakh followers on Instagram. Communities in a way are maturing as well, which is exciting because we’re starting to see people who used to only wear things that were popular everywhere else in the world to now having a sense of their personal style.
Were you a self-funded company?
Yes. We started as a passion project or a hobby business. We tried to start the business in 2012 but realised that there was a significant investment required to get to that point. From 2012 to 2016, we just put our heads down and focused on saving up to raise the kind of capital we required. We had other small businesses and a creative agency to support us.
Who are your competitors and target audience?
We compete with ourselves. It is interesting as several retailers will sell similar products. The amount of people selling this kind of streetwear and sneakers is very small, so the inclusion of more brands helps the market grow. When the market grows, then the brands will also grow. We have always been driven by the idea of creating a brand and not just selling products because at some point you know you’ll have many people who will be able to sell the same product. But the people who can create a brand will be the ones who eventually stay for long.
Do you follow any eco-friendly or sustainable practices?
Inherently, we have some things we do for packaging or shipping the nearly 10,000 orders we receive. We try and avoid single-use plastic and use tamper-proof packaging from recycled material. Our intention is to be sustainable. The infrastructure around us may not be as sustainable as it should be, because we’re shipping things using third parties. It is like assessing the market in India which is unregulated. Therefore, it is hard for us to audit the idea of sustainability. We would like to be a lot more sustainable and there is a lot of work to be done in that area. As our popularity grows, so does our commitment to creating a better world.
Are you planning to introduce any new category?
Yeah, absolutely. We are going to be launching jewellery before Diwali. We plan on becoming not just a sneaker store but a lifestyle store.
What is your marketing strategy?
We are a culture-to-commerce company. We are educating people by telling them what they’re buying. We carry shoes that have a lot of historical significance. The products with us also have a lot of technology. People need to understand what they’re getting and where it comes from. By this, they become our ambassadors in that sense.
Tell us something about recent innovations and collaborations.
We recently collaborated with Adidas, which was launching a product inspired by Hot Wheels. So, throughout our Delhi stores, we created a racetrack where people could come in and race their own Hot Wheels cars. Another event was in a Bombay store, where we celebrated five weeks of Air Max which is another revolutionary thing, that Nike made in 1985. The whole idea was about celebrating mistakes as mistakes lead to innovation.
Similarly, we featured five different creators in fashion and technology. We are friends of the brand that created the idea of embracing mistakes. We are constantly doing things like this to engage the customers and give them a little bit of experience. We had a 3D artist, who made digital outfits that were inspired by the bubble idea.
We’re incorporating a lot of art into some of the concepts. We also collaborated with Fila where we made our shoe inspired by the Indian kitchen. A couple of years ago, we collaborated with New Hats and made our special edition limited edition caps by the places that we come from.
Can you tell us about your online offline business split?
Around 60% to 65% of the business that we do is online. We harnessed the power of social media and communities in a way that has captured people’s imagination. We are constantly creating content and it is what drives commerce. Our strategy has been create to content around culture pulling people into stores where we treat them with interesting experiences. I think the only reason people follow certain brands is because they are looking for a deal or a discount. Our strategy has always been to add value to a customer’s life rather than offer a discount.
What are your future expansion plans?
We are looking to grow our retail presence in India. We are also exploring new markets such as Punjab and North East India. We currently have three stores, and you can expect three more in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. We are also exploring Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Aizawl for expansion.
