Akshay Kumar: I've been wearing athleisure when people didn't know what athleisure is

Akshay Kumar has joined a long list of A-List celebrities to launch their own brand and take up the entrepreneurial journey. On 26 January this year, the Bollywood superstar announced the launch of his apparel label, Force IX, and a select athleisure line was made available on the e-commerce platform Myntra. Now Force IX opened its first exclusive store in Mumbai. Kumar said the plan is to open nine exclusive stores by the end of 2023. “Next one is going to be in Bengaluru, then Delhi and Surat,” Kumar told Storyboard18.

This is not the first time that Kumar has dabbled in the apparel business. He wanted to set it up seven years ago. But was not pleased with what he saw. Kumar recounts, “I actually was going to do this seven years ago, but when I saw the product I was not very happy. Then I met a man called Manish Mandhana. What I liked about him is he is hard working and knows his job. He showed me how the whole thing is going to be."

Mandhana is the joint managing director of Mandhana Industries and also the co-founder of Force IX’s parent company, 9 AM Ventures Private Limited. The company has also partnered with Salman Khan for the Being Human apparel line.

Whilst speaking about the launch of the brand during turbulent times with macro-economic pressures, Mandhana says, “The best time to launch anything new is during the low times. When you start, you need a few seasons to get going in order to get your team right and product right.”

Athleisure has picked up since the pandemic as hybrid working has pushed consumers to opt for comfort clothing. The company wants to start its expansion journey from urban centers and then take it to Tier 2-3 markets. “We have started with Myntra with limited categories and now the whole idea is to spread out wings across the country. We are going to tap all the top retailers, the large format stores across the country as well. Gradually and slowly, we will grow step by step and go to various states. The target is to start with metros first, when you are successful in metros the aspiration of the brand goes down into the country,” says Mandhana.

When asked about the presence of so many well entrenched players already riding the athleisure wave and how his brand will stand out, Kumar answers that everything in the store embodies his personality. “When people didn’t know what athleisure is, I have been wearing these kinds of clothes since then. So what you are seeing in the store is all me. Every product here is something I want and something I have. Each and every cloth has a meaning to it. Plus everything is about ‘Forces’-army, navy, air force. I wanted to do something with the forces. That is why we came up with the name Force IX and 9 is the number of a warrior.”

Also, the proceeds from each and every sale at Force IX will go towards ‘Bharat Ke Veer’, an organization that supports the families of India’s martyrs.