Andrew Leo, Founder of Athflex, was sure about one thing when he launched Athflex and that is to sell comfort to athletes at an affordable price tag. With this clear point of view, he started Athflex as a fully gym-focused brand where the team started hiring top athletes to work with them and establish the brand in that niche
Building a trend
According to reports, the athleisure market is anticipated to grow to $549 billion by 2028. Athleisure and comfort wear are certainly what the customer is demanding to ‘stay on the go’ and be comfortable throughout the day. To break into this category, Athflex was also born out of a need. Answering the call of stylish fitness enthusiasts Athflex rolled out its extensive range of performance wear, which comfortably doubles up as leisure wear too. So, serving both purposes, this specialized clothing is well suited for the athletes and the conditioning community.
In order to suit the evolving lifestyle needs of consumers Athflex, experiments with a wide range of fabrics in casual and sportswear ranging from cotton, linen, polyester, and rayon that suit the requirement of every individual. The brand specializes in creating sweat-absorbent outfits so that you have a concentrated mindset while initiating those fitness moves.
Manufacturing as per trends
Athflex manufactures breathable sports clothing made up of spandex, polypropylene, wool, and polyester blend. “Winter sports activity needs you to be warm and sweat-free. Hence, we create special winter-based sportswear that is breathable and evaporate sweat immediately. Even if you are involved in heavy workouts and don’t get enough time to wipe up your body, our skin-friendly range of athleisure wear would spontaneously take care of you,” Andrew added. Their entire manufacturing is done in India, and Andrew and his team are experimenting with manufacturers to launch a seamless range for women real soon. What sets Athflex ahead of the others in the category is its competitive pricing and the brand’s ability to retain international quality made within a reasonable price bracket.
Andrew is happy to note that with Athflex he has been able to disrupt the category by bringing unique products catering specifically to the niche audience at a remarkable price which came out as a hero product and helped us carve a niche in the market. The truthfulness with which he has raised the brand has helped him grab the right eyeballs. He says, “Customers of Athflex have always been ardent critics of the brand and the community feeling they have shown is helping the brand grow at every step”. This customer base has been a big positive for Andrew and his team and even during COVID, it allowed them to stay afloat with a galore of orders.
Building a robust model
Andrew admits that with orders flowing in, logistics was a huge issue, and tackling it required a lot of technology integration and streamlining of order flow. Technology and tie-up with the right logistic partner have helped the brand achieve the perfect growth impetus and fulfillment automatically became streamlined and matured. Andrew when highlighting the power of technology in shaping Athflex mentions, “Technology is everything if you are running an online retail business. Upgradation is a must and to avoid errors we have tried to reduce the manual workflow as much as possible and brought in the right set of integration both on the frontend and the backend. Eventually, we are planning on automating the whole manufacturing process and trying to make management and tech input to push Athflex Abroad”.
Focused on men at the moment, the brand is always looking for ways to make its craft more acceptable and comfortable. In their quest, they are ready with some new launches of oversized and polo tees. But the journey to becoming India’s favourite has just started and its growing community of patrons is a witness to this story in the making!
