Fitness, fashion consciousness boosts knitwear business

Growing popularity of casual wear has infused a lot of energy in the knitwear segment. With newer segments like active wear, the overall knitwear category is witnessing fastrack growth. Brand play has increased and growing market beyond metros is adding new life to overall business.

Knit wear takes a sizeable share of business in any of the sportswear brand’s product basket today. Consistent growth of T-shirt business over a period of time has contributed a lot to boost of knitwear industry. Knitwear can be classified into two categories –heavy knits and, light knits. Light knits are has flat knitted T-shirts and circular knitted T-shirts, while heavy knits are a combinations of cotton/acrylic.

Category on a growth track

Sandeep Mukim, CEO of Proline opines the knitwear segment is constantly expanding on the back of consumers’ increasing requirement for comfort and need for expression. “It is difficult to estimate the size since it is a largely unorganised market. Most national players are into sportswear. The branded segment is growing at a CAGR 15 percent and about 70 percent of the sector is still unorganised. The number excludes undergarments category.”

When it comes to fashion, knitwear has an edge over woven as it operates mostly in casual side of the business. With casual fashion or ‘Friday Dressing’ concept having entered boardrooms and young upwardly mobile executives pairing denim with T-shirts and a smart casual jacket for meetings, demand for fashionable knitwear is on the rise. “With formal wear brands venturing into casual wear, large format stores floating their own casual wear private labels, online channels launching their own as well as bringing global casual wear brands, the demand for knits in various forms like T-shirts, shorts and knitted pants has increased many fold,” explains Sumit Dhingra, Country Business Director-Nautica and GANT, Arvind Lifestyle Brands.

With people becoming health conscious taking to an active lifestyle to remain fit, active wear segment in India is on a growth track. Big sports brands like Adidas, Puma, Nike and Reebok have taken note of this change and turned to be sports lifestyle brands in India. While the segment’s focus has been more on men’s category, women’s category is seeing rapid growth as well. The active wear segment is estimated at 1.5-2 billion dollars (Rs 8,840 to 11,787 crores) in India growing at 12-15 percent, year-on-year. Experts say the growth of this category is happening across markets from metros to Tier II, III towns. Interestingly, smaller cities with a smaller base are demonstrating higher growth rates.

A promising future, say analysts

A RNCOS research on Indian apparel retail market reveals that the idea of casual wear has more than arrived. The segment is expected to make deeper inroads into the psyche of Indian fashion consumers. It is estimated that the Indian apparel market which stood at Rs 2.05 lakh crore in 2012, will register a CAGR of 9 percent to reach Rs 3.15 lakh crore, in 2017. Further, given the increasing trend towards comfort and a trendy look, the growth rate is expected to be higher for casual wear segment.

With a large number of people wanting to wear brands, even brands are innovating with their range to appeal to target customers, who don’t reside just in metros anymore, even smaller Indian towns. In fact, demand from these untapped areas is more compared to the metros. Ecommerce is playing a major role in reaching out to these customers, not only in terms of delivering the product but also creating fashion and brand awareness among them. However, discounts offered them have been a major cause of concern among apparel brands.

While the knitwear segment continues to be dominated by non-branded players, brand-consciousness among consumers is certainly on the rise. By 2020, almost 35 percent of the Indian population will be living in cities. This high urban population is expected to splurge on casual wear products. Despite being strong in woven, the knitwear industry in India is on a double digit growth trajectory and the industry is gearing up for bigger play in the Indian apparel industry.