Shorty Capone brings urban street fashion to India

Shorty Capone Fashion the well known American fashion brand has now been launched in India to revolutionise the concept of urban street wear for India’s youngsters, the American way. The brand was started about five years ago in Chicago

by a hip-hop producer of the same name.

Shahnawaz Sheikh, Managing Director and CEO of Shorty Capone Fashion is confident that whilst India has a long way to go to embrace urban street fashion, it has begun acknowledging it. The Shorty Capone line in India has been adapted to suit the sensibilities of the local population by toning down the outré element and infusing a more elegant European style. Sheikh identified the need gap, as there were no affordable American urban street wear brands in India to cater to teens and youth.

Six months into India, the sailing was far from smooth initially. “It was difficult. I wouldn’t say it was an easy journey for us. But retailers did understand the product side. Though they said the product was flashy, we convinced them of the product.  We are satisfied with our journey in India”, Sheikh says. And consumer response has been rather promising. “On the consumer side we had a response of 100 per cent as in the percentage of people who saw the brand and loved it. In terms of sales our plans are going store-wise. But in terms of opinion we have had 100 per cent acceptance. Everybody liked something about it, which is exactly what we want,” Sheikh adds.

Armed with this response, Shorty Capone is all set to launch itself nationwide by 2011 in EBO format. Three EBOs are expected to go live by March 2011 and five more to follow by December 2011. The cities where they will open are Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Hyderabad with a typical store covering 1,000 to 1,300 sq. ft. area. Additionally, franchising to penetrate Tier II towns is being considered as a part of their nationwide presence in 2011. By the first quarter of 2011, Shorty Capone products will be made available in around 20 large format stores around the country. Currently, Globus Stores retails its footwear line only.

Shorty Capone’s manufacturing is truly international. Based out of five countries -- China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Turkey and Indonesia -- every product is made in a specific country. The denim garments are from Turkey as Italian fabrics are imported into Turkey and assembled there.  Sheikh says “We want to keep the feel of the brand intact and this is what’s happening now but eventually we will look at India too. I believe India makes good T-shirts. With denim since we use Italian fabrics, it doesn’t suit geographical locations because it’s easier for us to import fabrics into Turkey rather than shifting it to India and shipping back to Europe. We use only Italian fabrics for denim and we want to keep it that way.” However, these factories are not owned by the company and are all outsourced with stringent quality specifications and the Shorty Capone quality team monitoring.