100 Cr sports footwear brand reaches its pinnacle: A father and daughter story

Lalit Kishore is one such name that is associated with the Indian sportswear industry for the past 25 years. He has established international lifestyle sport brands like Nike and Lotto.

Lalit was the licensee of Nike in India initially, and later went on to become its CFO and vice-president. He was also the Founder and Managing Director of Lotto’s master franchisee Sports Lifestyle Private Limited (SLPL).

In 2011 Lalit Kishore and his daughter Aayushi, a post-graduate from Delhi’s Sri Ram College of Commerce came up with the idea of Globalite.

There were not many indigenous sport brands in India. Among the ones that exist are those which are exclusively priced international brands which all of us can’t afford or there are those cheap and local ones which wear out after a few uses. There was this need of something in between which will be on standard price. Thus the Kishores launched this mid-segment lifestyle sports brand called Globalite. It is the only brand in the industry and India where starting from manufacturing to retail, everything is done under Globalite. This is the sole reason as to why their products are lowly priced than the general industry standards.

Today, there is an avergae online sale of 7000 pair of shoes per day.

Currently, more than half of Globalite’s sales come from the web, app, TV channel and marketplaces. When Globalite initially started, 60% of its sales used to come from offline and traditional channels and today 70% sales are generated online.

“About 30 per cent of television commerce comes from footwear and lifestyle, so there is a huge market for Globalite to exploit,” says Aayushi.

Over the last couple of years Globalite has made 100 crore in sales and now it aims to make 60 crore by the end of this year.

“We have about 500 people in the factories on our rolls and a dedicated product R&D team in China that works on world trends and designs, and helps in product commercialisation in sync with our Indian design team,” says Aayushi.

Globalite manufactures all kinds of footwear from sport shoes to casual ones, sneakers, slippers, loafers and sandals.

Establishing a new brand in a country like India is very challenging as it is a highly brand-sensitive market. People are immensely brand loyal, especially in Tier I and II cities. People here hesitate a lot to welcome anything new. Until and unless there are any added advantages or benefits associated or some unique appealing feature or point to it, they simply ignore it. But in the case of Globalite, it was comparatively easy to penetrate the market because of the value for money offered and also the added facility of movers. Globalite had the first mover in the country.

Various local brands tried to ape, but because of its vertical integration, R&D and direct sale channels, Globalite has been very successful in maintaining its stand firm and strong in the market.

If Globalite continues with this growth rate, not far are the days when it will be the number one sports footwear selling brand in India.