Soon enough, as we watched the repercussions of the pandemic unfold, we started thinking of what to do next with our brand. That is when on one fine Bengaluru evening, we decided to browse around the shops for a good leather jacket. But appallingly, we could not. We met with disappointment as the jackets we found either lacked quality, design or were simply unaffordable. The ones we did like were above Rs. 15000/- at least. Even though we owned a lot of black t-shirts (wink wink), we did not have a lot of money.
There began the hunt. We were annoyed and in need of a fairly priced, good leather jacket that was nowhere to be found. We searched with passion like never before. We went to many different shops, big and small, and googled up places for custom-made jackets, but the earlier problems persisted. The jackets we found were sloppy in design, of inferior quality, or too expensive for three broke entrepreneurs (That’s us). It enraged us to think that we were kept out of the reach of good quality products, just because of the markup value of some brand name and that alone.
Our search bore fruit when finally we found a Leather jacket manufacturer who would make one for us according to our specifications. He gave us the option to choose the leather and the design. The best part was that he would custom produce it for us as per our measurements, costing us only around Rs. 7000/-!
This is where the story of ANTIBRND begins.
This experience sparked a thought within us. As we had already seen with GOFO, every piece of clothing, from T-shirts to leather jackets, had the same issue- the monopoly of high-end brands on good quality clothing with suitable designs and fitting. They were out of reach for most of us due to their high pricing and profit margins. We were offended by the thought that people were being denied access to high-quality products because they could not afford the brand name. We sure didn’t want an unaffordable brand name hanging on our jackets, when we knew the product could be affordable and a good quality one without it! Most of us don’t even think to buy high quality things for ourselves because it is equated with high prices; Even when India is one of the major manufacturing hubs for global luxury brands.
Now, the mission was personal. We had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve – to provide the finest products and make them accessible to the common man.
The advent of ‘direct-to-consumer’ sales had changed things a little in the industry by taking wholesalers out of the equation. However, they offered little or no comfort concerning the high prices to the consumers. They still bought their products from a manufacturer, and by putting their brand name on them, they priced it for way more than what they had to pay.
So we put our heads together to figure out how to give people access to the best products at their actual cost. The answer came to us soon enough; Take the brand and its face value out of the equation and empower those who create.
Our first actual hurdle was the expenses. We realized that we would be no different from the brands we are calling out if we are to profit 10X from each unit sold. Additionally, the customer would not benefit from the fair prices at manufacturing costs. As if by divine intervention, a solution came to us. If we raised money through a fixed membership fee, that would be enough to cover our costs, and better yet- the more members, the more the production and the cheaper the cost of each product!
We do understand that this seems a little out of the box. However, it was definitely worth a try if there is a chance to bring about a revolution!
Our products are made with the highest quality materials, at the same factories used by the big brands, and made available on antibrnd.com at 70% lower prices! Imagine!
We knew that there was a chance of failure but we will not give up until we ensure that everyone knows that a quality life is not as expensive as the world would want you to believe.