As against last year which mostly saw clearing of inventories, the IPL apparel merchandise market is back in its hay days. According to Ludhiana, Tirupur and Mumbai based knitwear manufacturers, the orders for IPL apparel manufacturing have risen again by anywhere between 25 per cent and 40 per cent this year.
"The last two years had mostly seen inventories piling up and hence retailers and IPL sponsors were busy in clearing them off. However, this year we have received 20-25 per cent more orders from sponsors than last year," said Vipan Mittal of Ludhiana-based Kudu Knit Process Pvt. Ltd., while refusing to divulge names of the sponsors.
Last year, the knitwear manufacturing company had received orders of over 100,000 units of apparel.
Similarly, Mumbai-based SVG Fashions Limited has also received orders to the tune of 100,000 metres this season. "The orders have been slightly higher for us than last season. We have received orders from almost all sponsors including Puma, Adidas and Reebok. The only worry this year is an increased supply of spurious IPL apparel as well. However, the retail demand among consumers this year is expected to be higher as well," said Rajkumar Agrawal, managing director of the knitted fabric and apparel manufacturer.
Further, while an email sent to RIL is yet to be responded, an official said that the company has supplied 35 per cent more fine microns to knitted manufacturers in Ludhiana and Mumbai for IPL apparel merchandise.
According to Reebok, the poor performance of the Indian cricket team has in turn raised expectations of fans from the IPL season this year. "There is a certain optimism among fans regarding the IPL season this year. Being bullish about the same, we hopeful this will result in increased retail apparel sales among fans," said a Reebok official on conditions of anonymity.
More From This Section
"Last year, the Adidas-Reebok merger had led to uncertainty in their file and rank which resulted in a dip in focus on IPL apparel. Resultantly, there was only 50 per cent efficiency when it came to tapping the IPL apparel market. Now that things have settled down, there is a renewed focus on placing more number of orders. Which is why, even we have supplied about 500 tonnes of fine microns, about 35 per cent more than last year. These microns are used by knitwear manufacturers in making apparel for IPL teams and fans," the RIL official added. An email to Puma did not solicit any response on time.
It needs to be mentioned here that other retailers like Pantaloons also outsource IPL apparel merchandise that are then marketed at its stores across the country.