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Interview with Lubeina Shahpurwala

Lubeina Shahpurwala
Lubeina Shahpurwala
Co-founder
Mustang Socks
Mustang Socks

The socks segment dominated the global hosiery market in 2015 with a share of over 69 per cent.
Mustang is one of the biggest manufacturers of socks in India and holds a market share of about 50 per cent in the organised sector. Lubeina Shahpurwala, Partner, Mustang Socks, describes how the category has evolved from staple menswear item to fashion accessory.

What is the size of the market for socks globally? At what rate is it growing?

Socks are a common element of our wardrobe. They are too widely used to be called just a commodity. In 2014, the global socks market was valued at 5.6 billion USD and an expected 8.5 per cent increase from 2015 - 2023. As you can see the socks market holds a negligible spot in the apparel industry. The socks market aims to eventually contribute to the overall apparel industry. The competition of a socks manufacturer relies on the accessibility and thereby channels of distribution, through which the commodity can reach the end consumer. Now the sock trend has extended from a traditional to a luxury application.

In-fact socks also constitute a varied market entailing athletic, casual and specialty socks to name a few. Until recently, many man-made fibres such as polyester and nylon have also been explored to substitute existing high quality cotton socks.
 

What has been the growth story at Mustang in the last 5 years? What is the targeted growth for the next two years?

Over the past 5 years, there has been a tremendous surge and demand towards the socks as a segment. It has opened up opportunities for us to offer our customers, products that not only offer utility but is a fashion statement. Today, we see other unconventional accessory products such as ties, scarfs, purses and jewellery that are not only making a fashion statement but have their own stand-alone stores. Our business vision has always been focussed, to deliver superior quality socks to our end consumers. We believe in customizing socks, as a lifestyle statement accessory and have been constantly working on bringing innovation and market segmentation under this category.

We look forward to having stand-alone stores and retail interface, as we plan on catering on a B2C level. The vision is not only on having socks as a product but to become a part of apparel and accessories. We do not want to limit ourselves to retailing Mustang products only, as we understand the changing mind-sets of consumers and industry at large, and hence need to give this category its due in terms of recognition as well as innovation.

Where are your manufacturing units located? Where do you source your yarn from?

Our factory is located in Palghar which is not too far from the city of Mumbai, where all are products are manufactured. Since, we manufacture more than 1 million socks a month, the quantity of yarn required is at a very large scale and India is one of the biggest manufacturers of yarn, hence we source our socks from India itself. 

What is the size of the market for socks in India?

Socks Industry in India is an unregulated market. India's population is the second largest at a census of 1.252 billion, which gives the brands/manufacturers a bigger marketplace to innovate themselves and cater to a wider audience.

There has been a positive acceptance of socks brands in the last couple of years in India. And brands are adopting newer ways to market their products. Sports as a sector are now also demanding or progressing into a need for specialised athletic socks. Luxury retailers are setting a large margin for a segment of the population with high disposable income. They are not just limited to only sales strategies but also the rotation of festivities and fashion statements. As is the market, consumers are evolving; their tastes are changing and funnelled to minute requirements such as designs, colours and occasional suiting.

What is the percentage share of socks in the legwear market?

It's not surprising that style-conscious millennial (aged between 23 to 34 years) are increasingly spending their money on hosiery. According to a recent survey by Report Buyer in terms of revenue, the socks segment dominated the global hosiery market in 2015 with a share of more than 69 per cent.

Today, with the introduction of innovative designs and varied segments in socks, pantyhose, sheers, opaque's, stockings, tights, leggings and several others socks, will continue to dominate the legwear market with increasing demand from working populations and emergence of women hosiery retail brands.

Which category in socks is faring well - toddler, kids, women, men, both online and in-store?

The market for women hosiery is rising, but the demand for such goods in the men's segment is increasing as well as even men follow the latest trends in fashion and apparels. The most sales, however, has accounted from kids and women offline, as compared to the men who largely use online platforms or branded retail products.

Do you plan to introduce any new product categories? If yes, please share a few details.

While we are focused on the socks range of apparels, our resources permit us to venture into a focus segment. This gives us more consumer insight, we simultaneously accumulate creative ideas in promoting our biker's sleeves, gloves and scarfs. Mustang believes in providing high standards to our consumers. The consumers of our products certainly help us magnify our vision by producing the best quality products.

Which are your major markets in India and abroad?

Today, our product and brand enjoy a massive goodwill with customers in the Indian market. Our products are available over 100 cities spread across 8000 stores, including an online retail platform as an extension of our product distribution channel. We would like to extend our parameters towards US, which is in progress. Currently, we export to England, Italy and the Middle East like UAE, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We aspire to have our products reach every corner in the world.

What kind of fabrics, prints, and colours are trending in the export markets?

Cotton, polyester and nylon still dominate the socks export market; even though woollen socks fall behind, but new performance fibres are also becoming popular.

What are the latest technologies and innovations trending in this industry?

With the latest changes in technology and the economy, the socks industry is constantly innovating itself. In fact, the change in consumer needs and awareness triggered this industry to evolve to what it is today. As a result, features like high thread count, absorbent cotton material, trekker socks and compression socks, have become a common trend.

What is your presence in the online space? How do you plan to develop this further? How much is it contributing to your turnover?

To be honest, the online space is booming, last year we thought it would be a great time for us to enter into the e-commerce segment. Since socks are such a niche product we are looking to grow at a 50 per cent in this space in the next few years.

While, our maximum efforts have been to establish an online portal exclusively for socks, we are venturing into creating brand awareness. As of now since we are at the initial stages, a very small percent is being contributed by the e-commerce platform in our turnover.

The socks category is also witnessing a rash of innovations globally. Which innovations do you incorporate in your product line?

For almost three decades now, Mustang as a brand has been pioneering in the segment of fashion retail with our innovative product line in socks. In order to remain one of the primary market players, we're constantly innovating across three main segments in terms of product, design and variants. In the product segment we pioneered the launch of cotton spandex socks way back in 1992. Made from a special yarn, these socks feature fibres with engineered cross-section enabling moisture to reach the fabric's outer surface where it evaporates quickly. In terms of design we added quirky motifs, themes and bold colours in our latest autumn winter 2016 collection and even created an exclusive range of mismatched socks that created a lot of buzz amongst the youth. And in the variants segment, we went into character licensing - where we introduced a whole new fun element to our collection by launching Jungle Book, Disney, Avengers and Motu Patlu themed socks for children.
Published on: 09/11/2016

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.