Roshan Baid and Ravish Nanda planned to build a sports apparel company two years ago and they made sure to do it the right way and for the right reasons.

 

As more and more Indians are becoming health and fitness conscious, Baid feels the availability of products is on limited choices- either expensive and of top-notch quality or affordable but of poor quality.

Quality sportswear is assumed to be in a great demand across the country, not only among the urban youth but also in the tier B, C and D towns.

 

Their company, Alcis Sports, not only produces clothes that are of fine quality and affordable, but their clothes are also made of recycled plastic PET bottles, accordingly, doing a huge favor to both society and the environment.

 

The collected PET bottles are sterilized, dried and crushed into small chips, followed by heating and are passed through a spinneret to form strings of yarn. 

The yarn is wound up in spools and the fiber is then passed through a crimping machine to create a fluffy wooly texture. Thereafter, the final yarn is baled, dyed and knitted into fabric.

 

Each t-shirt saves around 27 litres of water, uses 50% less energy to produce and reduces carbon emission by over 54%.

 

Roshan Baid said, “We firmly believe that we don’t just make clothes, but make equipment for our customers that can be used for both performance and activewear.”

 

Baid further continued, "we are planning to produce 50% of our garments from recycled polyester." 

 

Normally, t-shirts are made of Polyester, a man-made fiber, production of which includes huge quantities of water, chemicals, and use of fossil fuels. The raw materials and by-products are toxic and pollute water and air, causing several health hazards.

 

This is why the co-founders decided to use R-PET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate), which is a strong, durable and recyclable material used for soda bottles, water bottles, food jars etc.

 

For now, their two hot selling products, Wonder Tee and Wonder Polo are made from recycled polyester out of R-PET bottles, where about eight plastic bottles are used to make one T-shirt.

 

They are softer and lighter than normal ones, weighing just 85-90 grams.

 

It is now planning to launch kids wear, footwear, bags and other accessories soon.

 

The company is at present selling over 40,000 items every month through various channels. 

Alcis Sports is available in over 700 outlets across the country including all leading large format stores such as Lifestyle, Shopper Stop, Central, Globus, Sports Station, etc, as well as online retail websites and 11 exclusive brand stores at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Jaipur, Guwahati, Bangalore, Goa, Bagru, and Kurukshetra.