Pratik Luther was pursuing his MBA from Humber College Toronto, Canada when he failed his final semester project because his colleagues did not think he participated enough. As a result, he was forced to repeat a semester with the upcoming batch 3 months down the line.
“I got 3 totally blank months with no work to do. It was the month of October and it was freezing in Toronto, so all I would do was watch TV series initially,” Says Pratik.
He started to work as a part-time concierge in a building under construction. Pratik ended up having so much free time that he decided to learn web designing. And thus, an e-commerce company of merchandise was born!
“Canada’s fast internet connection is one of the most important factors that contributes for the birth of my business. I started working on an e-commerce website and designed it myself,” says Luther. After deciding to sell merchandise like T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies, he studied to understand the Japanese management concept “JIT” (Just In Time Manufacturing).
“JIT allows business to become so efficient that they don’t require any stocks to run,” he adds. Luther states that JIT explains a company to start producing anything just after receiving orders from the client. “This eliminates the risk of dead stocks, the cost of storage of ready stock, trend changes, price fluctuation,” he says further.
The enthusiastic lad started Swag Shirts in March 2014 in Bilaspur Chhattisgarh. Probably the first e-commerce company coming from Chhattisgarh, swagshirts99.com started with the idea of creating a business which runs automatically without keeping stocks and investment.
“When I checked in Indian online market no-one was selling cool breaking bad or other TV series t-shirts so I started listing TV series design t-shirts to my website with other cool design which was easily available in US & Canada but not in India,” says the BBA from Symbiosis International University.
With the highest number designs available in India, Swag Shirts can print those designs on many formats (men’s tee, women tee, tank tops, hoodie kids tee etc) on 12 different colours and on 8 different sizes, thanks to their JIT manufacturing model. They are also a production partner to organizations in Saudi Arabia and Australia currently.
“We increased our reach in the Indian market by selling on platforms like Voonik, go bazar, Snapdeal, Amazon, and Flipkart,” adds Luther.
Their marketing team of 2 people works intensely with the 10 members in production team to bring out the best merchandise for their customers. Down the line, the company wants to open exclusive showrooms in Bangalore and partner with resellers to increase their business. “We are also looking to add printed Curtains, Mugs, Polyesters, Shoes, and mobile cases to our list soon. Completely bootstrapped the company is generating revenues worth 1Cr.
When they started up, Pratik says that they received more orders than expected. “Swag Shirts was selling really cool stuff which was not available anywhere else. The amazing response of people kept my business going,” he says. A man who has learnt on the job, he thinks it is the best way to grow. Pratik draws inspiration from positive people and suggests future entrepreneurs to be persistent in their work.