The Olympics have kick started, and as the Indian contingent makes waves in Tokyo, fans back home seem to have sparked a boom in the world of Olympic-themed merchandise. From T-shirts to mugs and bottles, everything is gaining demand, as per the wholesalers. Specially designed face masks by some small-scale manufacturers are also becoming popular.
“Our Olympic masks are a big hit so far,” says Yash Gupta, owner of a Delhi-based apparel startup, Merchindyes, adding, “Looking at the demand, we had made 2,000 pieces. Out of these, 1,000 have already been sold! And we are getting a lot of bookings every day. People are buying in bulk for friends and family, teams from different sports complexes are also buying these for the players, coaches and management. Some sports fans have also been enquiring about Olympic themed T-shirts.”
“I played sports all my school life. So when I saw these Olympic masks online, I fell in love with them,” says Sarthak Arora, a Delhi-based project engineer, sharing that these masks have been a hit among his family and friends. “Due to the Covid situation, we often need more than one mask. Initially, I had bought five to six masks since I live a joint family. But as soon as I uploaded a picture of us wearing them, on Instagram, my friends said they too wanted to buy. So I ordered for 18-20 masks more. Most of us are at home and since we’ll be watching the Tokyo Olympics at home, we plan to wear these for sportsman spirit,” he adds.
Khushali Mehta Bayani from Mumbai’s Khush Essentials says, “We generally customise our products on the basis of whatever is trending, and right now it’s the Tokyo Olympics. We were getting some queries regarding these products as people love to buy these for their friends and office groups. So we have gone ahead and introduced sippers and mugs, as these are keepsakes. And we are witnessing a lot of demand for these.”
“These started selling just before the Indian contingent departed,” says Prajna Ray Chatterjee, owner of a Kolkata-based clothing brand, Appam. She adds that these products needed a right time to be launched, to generate interest among sports lovers. “We were planning to roll out these, but wanted to be sure about the launch dates. It’s a big event and we have some special designs themed on the Olympics. And people are placing orders of more than 10 pieces in one go, which is a great thing to see because usually that happens for cricket or football and not much for other sports.” she adds.
Author tweets @anjuri
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.