In Startup50 2017: Campus Sutra, a private-label fashion brand sells a range of apparel and accessories to students on campuses, brought innovation in its supply chain to bring to market a new fashion trend within 21 days and for shipping 15 lakh orders in FY17. The company’s campus ambassador program is widely popular amongst students.

Founder Name: Aditya Agawral, Dhiraj Agarwal, Khushboo Agarwal, Sonal Agarwal

India’s largest bootstrapped brand in the apparel space, the company scaled its business operations in less than four years to close FY17 with Rs. 100 crore in revenues. Its products for men and women include sweatshirts, T-shirts, caps, jackets, sports/active wear, shorts, tops, hoodies, bags, laptop sleeves, mugs and sippers.

Campus Sutra’s business model combines online channels/offline (stores) to provide customers with easy access to contemporary fashion with ‘designs that resonate’ with its core target audience, as well as supply chain innovations that deliver products to market in less than 21 days (as compared to the industry norm of 3-6 months).

Differentiators

Some of the innovations by Campus Sutra include:

Supply chain innovation: Most apparel brands place an excessive emphasis on the front end: marketing, partnerships, store set ups etc. Campus Sutra focuses on effectively managing supply and sourcing via direct involvement with yarn suppliers and dyers, as well as employing eight (outsourced) captive units in South India that manufacture exclusively for the brand. Campus Sutra delivers designs from “mind-to-market”, in 21 days typically (though this can be crunched to seven days, if required).

“Wear What you’re made Of” (instead of wearing designs that are hard to identify with): When everyone was looking at copying what people were doing in the West (for e.g., Harvard University hoodies, Baseball / American Football-led designs), Campus Sutra decided to give the youth in India what they needed. Everyone has the inherent need to express themselves and their achievement and Campus Sutra products cater to this need.

Campus Sutra ‘Sutradhars’ The company built a community of students who are is focus group, product managers, designers, marketing team and so on. Sutradhars help the company remain relevant and in touch with its core by in designing and creating strategies on which products to launch and creating unique marketing campaigns involving students.

Quick Facts

Fund: $ 2 million (debt) in 2015

Orders shipped in FY17 – Rs.15 lakh  

21 days : Deliver products to market in less than 21 days