More and more fashion brands are stepping outside their core categories, using new product lines to widen their brand identity, pull in new customers and open up fresh revenue streams. The logic is simple: once someone has bought into a brand once, there’s an opportunity to earn a bigger share of their wallet and their loyalty over time by getting them to buy across categories, not just one. Whether that adjacent category is sneakers, accessories, beauty or skincare, most brands eventually find their way there.
But success in a new category doesn’t look the same for every brand. For some, it’s simply a test of trust: will the consumer who already buys from them once take a chance on a second category too? Others, the ambition runs much bigger, aiming for genuine market share in the new space. A new category can either deepen the bond with an existing customer or become the very reason a brand wins someone it never had before, and founders need to be honest with themselves, well before launch, about which of these two goals they’re actually chasing.
| For some, it’s simply a test of trust: will the consumer who already buys from them once take a chance on a second category too? For others, the ambition runs much bigger, aiming for genuine market share in the new space. A new category can either deepen the bond with an existing customer or become the very reason a brand wins someone it never had before. |
It also helps to remember that having loyal customers doesn’t guarantee they’ll want the new category too. Take a brand that has built a strong name in, say, resortwear, and now wants to expand into everyday essentials at a luxury price point. Just because customers are willing to pay a premium for one category doesn’t mean they’ll pay the same premium for another. The blunt truth is that winning in the first category buys a brand very little credibility in the second.
The starting point is also different for every brand. Newer brands may have speed, relevance and a closer connection with emerging consumer tastes on their side. Legacy brands, meanwhile, may have the advantage of established distribution, supplier relationships and procurement scale. These strengths can make the journey easier in different ways, but neither gives a brand a free pass. The new category still has to earn its place with the consumer and work as a business.
To understand what category expansion actually demands, we spoke to brands across different product categories about what they tried, where they stumbled, what surprised them, and what it took to make the new category work.
Learning New Materials, New Silhouettes
For Mumbai-based sneaker retailer Superkicks, the move into apparel has been a gradual evolution rather than a sudden category expansion. The brand has been making apparel for around four years, with the first three largely focused on getting the basics right, including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants and other everyday essentials. Over the last year, however, it has deliberately moved towards what CEO & Co-Founder Sangeet Paryani describes as “elevated fashion apparel”, with more fashion-forward pieces, stronger storytelling, distinctive silhouettes, new fabrics, better stitching and a greater focus on garment quality.
That shift brought a different set of product-development challenges. “The first was scouting and sourcing the right kind of materials and building relationships with new vendors. The second was getting the fit right, particularly as we were experimenting with new silhouettes. The third was ensuring that the story we wanted to tell through each pack was actually communicated through the silhouettes, construction and design,” says Paryani.
Beyond that, operations and distribution remained largely unchanged, allowing the brand to rely on systems it already had in place.
The other learning came on the consumer side. Paryani initially expected the new products to be accepted almost instantly. Instead, the response was slower, as customers needed time to understand what Superkicks was trying to build in apparel. The brand also deliberately keeps quantities low for each pack. That approach, however, keeps overheads relatively high.
For Delhi-NCR sneaker brand Gully Labs, the shift looked a little different. Kara, the brand’s first full ready-to-wear collection, opened the door to customers looking for quality, everyday garments rather than occasion-wear. But moving from footwear to apparel brought a new set of challenges.
The biggest hurdle was simply not knowing enough yet. The brand had to get up to speed on fabrics like cotton twill, linen-cotton blends and poplin, along with finishings such as coconut and coin buttons, all territory well outside its footwear background in leather and suede. “We also had to extend our karigar network’s skill set from footwear assembly into garment construction, and build a production and casting process specific to apparel storytelling. That meant sourcing karyakarta (people from the community) for the campaign rather than professional models, and shooting on the plantations themselves to stay true to where the collection started,” said Arjun Singh, Co-founder, Gully Labs.
He added, “Distribution stayed consistent with how we’ve always launched: in-store with a showcase preview the day before, and online from day one.”
The New Category Doesn’t Have to Be Completely New
Not every brand’s expansion means leaving its core category behind. Jockey, for instance, has grown by tapping into adjacent demand within its own space. “We have ventured towards athleisure, activewear, and youth-focused lifestyle apparel, supported by collections such as JKY Studio and JKY Groove, that encourage consumers to express themselves as part of their everyday lifestyle,” said Nihal Rajan, CMO, Jockey India.
JKY Studio includes official partnerships with franchises such as Disney and Marvel, across casual wear, graphic oversized T shirts, loungewear and socks. JKY Groove focuses on athleisure and streetwear for Gen Z and young adults between 18 and 24.
The expansion also came with its own learning curve. “The challenge was to understand what could be carried forward from Jockey’s core strengths, and what needed to evolve for the new category and consumer. The experience reinforced that brand equity alone is not enough to succeed in a new category.”
He added, “If there is one thing we would have done differently, it would be to accelerate consumer feedback loops even earlier in the development process.”
Womenswear athleisure label Mile Collective followed a similar path, expanding into a broader everyday wardrobe as demand grew for products that could do more than one job. “We wanted to make sure every piece had a clear purpose and could seamlessly fit into different parts of a woman’s day,” said Harshita Motaparthi, Founder, Mile Collective. “The focus was not just on entering a new category, but on building products that genuinely earned a place in our customers’ everyday wardrobes.”
Still, moving from activewear into a wider everyday wardrobe wasn’t without its own learning curve. Fit, comfort, versatility and styling all carried different expectations in this new space, which meant rethinking parts of the product development and sourcing process. “It was also a learning curve to understand which details truly mattered to customers and where we could create a point of difference,” Motaparthi said. “Ultimately, it pushed us to become much more rigorous about product testing and customer feedback.”
