Interview with Utkarsh Chaudhary | Fit Mentor

I hope this can inspire you to become a successful entrepreneur too! Why is it important to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur?

Having the vision to become an entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!

In that frame, I had the pleasure to interview Utkarsh Chaudhary, founder of Fit Mentor. Fit Mentor is a D2C Domestic Active Wear Brand, launched in 2018. Utkarsh Chaudhary is an economics graduate from Hindu college.

1. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My vision is to create a sports centric community and customer base via our products. I find my drive in the of achieving mastery through consistent, incremental efforts, much like the magical monetary benefits accrued through compounding over time.

2. Please provide a brief overview of your product/service.
We manufacture performance enhancing active wear for our retail customers on our online official website and Amazon. Our products are based on Hexarel fabric technology which includes Qmax Cool Touch, Anti Odor, Anti-Viral, Sweat Wicking, Anti-Static, UPF Sun Protection.

3. How did you get the initial traction?
We started selling football customized kits to Delhi private teams and football leagues. Then launched our first AirTech Collection in the month of October 2018. Initial we sold majority of our products with word of mouth and social media marketing.

4. What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
The most challenging part has been to introduce more technical garments at an affordable pricing. Our products will always be sold below INR 999 and meeting this pricing with our quality has been difficult. Secondly, educating people about what is right to be worn for their sport/physical activities. Still, people wear garments based on heavy gsm or 100% cotton, which affects their performance. We would like to change this mindset.

5. What are your plans for the next 3 years?
Our plan is to expand our E-commerce presence. We launched our store on Amazon in June 2021. We are about to launch our products on Flipkart. Next step for us is to sell our products on Myntra, Tata Cliq and Nykaa Fashion. We will be launching our first Football Club Jerseys and Basketball Kit in 2022. In next 3 years, we are planning to establish a domestic D2C brand and create a community of customers and like-minded people, who all are working towards their health and fitness-oriented goals.

6. How did you managed to fund your startup?
It’s been boot-strapped till now. We are looking for angel investors and Venture capitalists for future growth and expansion.

7. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investment?
We have done a total of 95 lakhs of revenue in last 3 years. We are projecting our 2022 sales to be around 1.25 CR and for that we will be introducing our brand to various platforms like Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa Fashion and Tata Cliq. We will be introducing our technical garments and expand our SKUs.

The investment we are looking for is around 75 lakhs for the above-mentioned expansion.

8. What are the industry metrics and scope?
Mckinsey’s Fashion Scope report pegged the industry to be worth $59.8 billion by 2022. A growing trend within the industry is sportswear. The sector experienced boom specifically during COVID-19 crisis, as there was a collective rise in number of health-conscious consumers.

9. What problems are you solving?
Educate people about performance enhancing active wear and creating a community for young athletes to showcase their skills and get noticed at an initial stage of their sports/fitness journey. Revolutionizing how domestic customized kits are being manufactured and providing good quality jerseys at college and state level.

10. How did you get the idea?
I used to play football in my school and college days. There were very few brands which were manufacturing good quality customized jerseys for the young players. So, we noticed a gap in this segment and that’s when we decided to provide a good quality customized jerseys to our young athletes/players at a very reasonable pricing, INR 750 onwards.

11. What marketing techniques are you using?
We use social media marketing like Ad’s campaign on Instagram, Facebook, Google Ads, SEO techniques, PPC campaigns on Amazon and Flipkart, Influencer collaborations. For offline marketing, we conduct sports events wherein we gather various players and give them a platform to showcase their talent and skills. On such events, we launch our latest collections as well.

12. Any other detail you want to share?
We have also launched our grassroot level sponsorship programme last year, in which we sponsor the jerseys to clubs at remote areas and promote their story on our media pages. Our first grassroot collaboration was Siachen FC. We are looking for more such sport teams and individual athletes under this programme.