Custom-made clothing for men and women

Despite launching amid the pandemic, The Pant Project banked on the comfort of its clothing winning over new customers.

When The Pant Project cofounder Dhruv Toshniwal was studying in the US in 2013, he was taken aback by the flurry of D2C brands hitting the fashion market. Having become used to the comfort they offered, he saw that back in India, there’s a gap for such apparel. “I found the experience of going to a local tailor to be too tedious, and launched The Pant Project so that Indian men could get custom-made clothing from the comfort of their home,“ he says. The Toshniwal brothers come from the house that built Banswara Syntex, a textiles and garments manufacturer. Set up in 1976, the public-listed company currently has a market cap of over $50 Mn. But the brothers set up a separate entity as they wanted to take a digital-first approach and solve the problem of custom clothing through ecommerce.

The founders claim the company earned INR 1 Cr in FY21, but is on track to grow this by 10X by March 2022 based on the ARR in December 2021. It’s confident that the new categories of jeans and womenswear will help it cross this mark. In terms of the customer base, the startup currently claims to have served 13,000 customers with over 20,000 units sold.

The Pant Project’s association with the larger textiles company offers it access to a range of fabrics and material for its custom-made clothing, which doesn’t just include trousers, but also jeans, shorts, loungers and womenswear. The company’s signature range is made out of a stretch material that it claims is loved by customers because of the comfort it offers for all occasions. The startup also arranges free alterations and monogramming for its pants to take customisation to the next level.

While its power stretch pants range is said to be the top-seller, the company has also added custommade shorts and jeans, which is another category that is seeing a bit of action on the D2C front. It has also ventured into the highly-lucrative custom womenswear category with pants for now. Besides this, it will also be adding other categories as the company’s ambitions include owning a larger slice of an individual’s wardrobe.

Riding on the traction seen in the past few months, The Pant Project will soon launch on marketplaces and is looking to experiment with pop-up stores in the retail channel followed by brand-owned stores or experience centres. The plan is to get to an ARR of INR 25 Cr by December 2022.