Samtana, the organic brand to spread offline presence

Focused on providing customized organic clothing to other brands, Samtana Clothing saw its growth triple last year. Now, it is looking to grow further by expanding its offline retail presence and new additions in product line. “Samtana is in the process of rolling out new collections by adding children’s

T-shirts and a few other surprises. Besides this, Samtana is actively seeking independent and artistic stores around the country to make our T-shirts available offline,” explain Bharath Madhiraju & Ben Heinkel, the brands founders and director.

According

to them, the market for organic cotton T-shirts may be limited to Tier I, II cities, but Samtana’s products are not limited to these customers that specifically care for organic products.

Launching new products

So far Samtana has only produced T-shirts for men and women, which have been well received. “However, we have had quite a few enquiries for children’s organic T-shirts. It is something we are looking at in the near future. A number of concerned parents have approached us, therefore we are actively searching for the healthiest options for their children,” explains Madhiraju.

Samtana promotes unique and artistic clothing while simultaneously supporting a movement towards organic cotton as a solution to numerous problems of cotton farmers worldwide and especially India. “At present, the brand has two collections, 11 different designs for both men and women. A collection with seven more designs will be released soon. We are also working on an upcoming children’s collection with a well-known international artist,” adds Madhiraju.

Meanwhile the brand is looking at moving into other spaces in the near future. Wearable Art has a lot of potential to move into other clothing lines of apparel and accessories.

Expanding offline retail

Samtana has only been selling online and at fairs in the company’s hometown, Bangalore. Online sales make up the majority of its sales, however, this will be changing this year as it will start talking to independent stores around the country to offer Samtana T-shirts offline as well.

“Considering the rising numbers of internet shoppers in India, including mobile, it would not be practical to offer our clothes online. Selling online is not just about putting up an e-commerce store and promoting your URL at every opportunity, it’s about building a brand, a community, interacting with your customers and that is what people expect before they hand over their money to you,” explains Madhiraju.

Samtana was launched in 2012. On the inspiration and journey so far, Madhiraju says, “The influx of big brands killing off individualistic and artistic clothing design, and farmer suicides due to soap bubble promises of GM companies led us to believe our concept of 'wearable art'. It brings these two issues together in a symbiotic relationship, with one supporting the other successfully.”