Brands
Sports accessories brand D:FY clubs quality with affordability
MUMBAI: Affordability is every Indian’s first thought when purchasing anything. However, quality sports shoes tend to be high priced and the likes of Nike Air or Adidas Superstar are beyond the reach of normal people’s budgets.
Enter the latest entrant to try to make the impossible possible – D:FY (read: defy). Launched by fitness enthusiasts Prashant Desai and Rajiv Mehta, who are marathon runners themselves, it aims to make great sports gear accessible to the Indian makes with great technology and breath-taking looks.
For Desai and Mehta, the idea for D:FY seeded with a personal need to buy quality sports products at an affordable price as running was becoming expensive for them. “As runners, we had to buy products by global brands that are heavily priced which has always pinched us. There are enough brands available in the market but they don’t give enough quality products and technologies required to run well,” says Desai.
The company competes directly with Indian brands in the same category such as Action, Power, and Red Tape but aspires to compete with international brands including Sketchers, Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok in a year’s time. On this, Pradeep says, “We definitely aspire to compete with bigger players in the market. If you compare a product of D:FY’s which is priced at Rs 5500 with a competitor’s Rs 5500 product, ours is definitely way better in terms of technology. But most people compare apples to oranges whereas they should compare apples to apples.”
Backed by FMCG mogul Kishore Biyani along with Farhan Akhtar and ex-cricketer Anil Kumble, the company has Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya and actor Nidhi Agerwal as brand ambassadors.
The company wants to target a mass audience and hence has decided to price it at a sweet spot. D:FY footwear range targets Indian fitness sensibilities — walk, gym and multi-sport that starts from Rs 2200 whereas apparels start from as low as Rs 799.
Marketing the product efficiently is equally essential to ensure brand awareness and recall and this is where most companies get it wrong. Since digital is available at a much cheaper rate than television D:FY wants to advertise heavily on digital and BTL. It wants to reach consumers at as many touchpoints as possible but will refrain using television at the moment as it comes at an exorbitant cost.
The company is set to invest Rs 10 crore for advertising during the first year of its operations. An optimistic entrepreneur, Mehta says that they are extremely aggressive about their capital spending and will invest in outdoor, digital, BTL, radio and maybe in-cinema advertising along with influencer marketing.
The co-owners don’t want to be just another online brand but will look at ramping up the offline presence by opening stores where consumers can touch and feel the product before buying them.
D:FY is planning an aggressive physical presence with 22 store launches across nine cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Surat, Vadodara, Mohali, Bareily and Hubli by the end of September and plans to take this to 100 stores by 2022.
Online sales are equally important for any brand and especially if you are just starting out. Usually, brands partner with multiple e-commerce websites to sell the products which help them in reaching out to a large set of audience. But D:FY has tied up exclusively with Amazon to sell the merchandise which kind of narrow downs the scope of reaching a mass audience that shops online.
While the products will be available across all channels, the company does not want to sell the products at a discounted rate as it believes the price-point is pretty much justified.
Though major sales for the brand will come in from metros and mini metros, the co-founders want to reach the rural consumer as well. It will also face a stiff competition from local players that sell sports shoes for as low as Rs 200 and apparel at a mere Rs 100-200.
Where most manufacturers – national and international – are looking at shifting their manufacturing units to India in order to promote the government’s Make In India initiative, the duo wants to continue manufacturing the sports products in China. They will, however, bring the apparel manufacturing business to India which is also manufactured in China.
For 2020, the company has set huge targets where it will become more aggressive in terms of marketing and advertising the products, with an increased number of stores and SKUs. The sports brand targets to have revenue worth Rs 60 by the end of its first year’s operations.
The store has all the feels you get when you walk into a Nike or Adidas outlet. It will, however, be interesting to see if D:FY can create a niche for itself in an already cluttered market where Indians still prefer buying international products for the sake of quality.
Brands
Hyundai launches updated Ioniq 5 with 84 kWh battery, 690 km range
Priced at Rs 55.7 lakh, adds design, tech and safety upgrades.
MUMBAI: Charge it up, stretch it out, Hyundai’s latest electric upgrade is going the distance, quite literally. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has introduced an updated version of its Ioniq 5, packing in a larger 84.0 kWh battery that delivers a claimed range of up to 690 km (ARAI-certified), marking a significant leap in everyday usability for its flagship electric SUV.
Built on Hyundai’s Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), the refreshed IONIQ 5 aims to balance performance with practicality, reducing range anxiety while making long-distance electric travel more viable. The upgrade builds on a model that has already secured global recognition, including the World Car of the Year title.
The changes aren’t just under the skin. On the outside, the SUV gets a sharper, more futuristic look with redesigned front and rear bumpers, new skid plates, sporty alloy wheels, a revised rear spoiler and updated V-garnish lighting, all while retaining its signature Parametric Pixel design.
Inside, Hyundai has focused on making the experience more intuitive. The cabin now features a redesigned three-spoke steering wheel with illuminated pixel elements, dual 12.3-inch displays, and a reworked wireless charging pad integrated with physical controls for seat functions small tweaks that aim to improve day-to-day usability.
On the tech front, the IONIQ 5 gets Hyundai’s Connected Car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC), Controller Over-the-Air (C-OTA) updates, and now supports wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. New additions such as Active Sound Design and in-car payment integration for EV charging reflect a push towards a more seamless, connected ownership experience. Remote immobilisation via Bluelink has also been introduced as an added security layer.
Safety sees incremental upgrades too, with features like Parking Collision-Avoidance Assist (Rear) and side parking distance warnings enhancing manoeuvrability in tight urban spaces.
The updated IONIQ 5 is available in four colour options Gravity Gold Matte, Midnight Black Pearl, Titan Grey and Optic White with an Obsidian Black interior theme.
Priced at Rs 55.7 lakh (ex-showroom), the new IONIQ 5 positions itself as a more rounded offering, less about futuristic promise, and more about making electric mobility fit seamlessly into everyday life.
