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When a company called One Sports launched a new sports brand called Thwack at a glitzy function in Singapore in June 2011¸ most Indian followers of badminton were nonplussed. Few had any inkling of what it was all about, for nobody had seen it coming. (Although Thwack was announced as a sports brand, it was seen mainly as a badminton brand because of its emphasis on that sport to begin with.) In the months following that glitzy launch, it got even more mysterious, with little news about Thwack in the Indian badminton world. The one thing that was certain was that Thwack had tied up with former Chinese World GP champion Xiong Guobao, who had his own line of rackets called ‘Backhand King’. Guobao, contemporary of Prakash Padukone and known as the Backhand King for his incredible attacking options using that stroke, had developed a unique grip on his rackets with deep imprints that apparently help a player execute strokes on their weaker backhand side.
After months of being out of the news, Thwack has begun to make its presence felt. The Thwack Inter Club Badminton Carnival was held in Mumbai on February 18th and 19th, and a ‘lifetime achievement’ award given to Indian badminton great Nandu Natekar. What makes Thwack exciting is that it promises to be the first Indian badminton brand to go global, with ambitions for the South East Asian and Europen markets. In this exclusive interview with Dev S Sukumar, REJI MATHEW, MD of One Sports, explains what Thwack has to offer, and its plans for establishing its space in the crowded badminton equipment market. Excerpts from the interview:
Could you tell us about the origin of your company? How did you zero in onthe name ‘Thwack’?One Sports is a part of USD 400 million-plus One Group that has been runningsuccessful ventures for over 50 years in areas of healthcare, real estate,engineering and construction. The vision of One Sports is to make sports a preferred fitness option and will be entering into everything related to sports such as sports infrastructure, sports lifestyle, sports gear, etc.The brand name for our sports gear is ‘Thwack’. Thwack has no language barrier. It’s a sound that is relevant to any sport: the sound of the strike. From the name evolves our symbol of victory i.e: The Winning Strike. Towards the end of 2012 we will launch equipments and apparel in other lifestyle sports like tennis, squash and basketball.
In badminton, you will face massive competition because of deeply entrenched brands that have been around for several decades. How do you plan to face this challenge?We intend to first capture mind share; the market share will follow. Further, our rackets designed by coach Xiong Guobao have a patented design of the grip that will drastically improve the game. Moreover, Thwack is not just about products. We are also introducing training clinics with coach Guobao that will hopefully bring in many new players into the fold. We have a unique in-store branding where we have panels/posters with a chart on how to select rackets and boxing gloves and also video screens that will play our training videos.We don’t envisage competition from deeply entrenched brands, our competition is our own set of challenges to introduce a healthy sports ecosystem.
What is your broad brand strategy?We’re a new brand. Our brand strategy will evolve over time. However, the basic premise of our brand strategy is to engage with our stakeholders and our customers in more ways than one.
Do you plan to target a specific segment of customers, like club players for instance?We are promoting badminton through clubs and gyms but our set of customers is the entire universe of badminton enthusiasts.
What is your offering for professional players?Some of our rackets are being used by professional players. For example, Petr Koukal, Czech No.1, plays with our Dragon Fire rackets. We will be constantly adding more to our bouquet of products.
Apart from the backhand grip on your rackets, what is your USP?We have a range of rackets designed to suit different levels of play. The grips to improve backhand shots are only on three distinct brands – SFX, JFX and the upcoming Flare. We have other rackets based on the weight of the racket and the flexibility of the shaft.
Do you plan to have a brand ambassador apart from Xiong Guobao, who’s hardlyknown in India?Xiong Guobao is not a brand ambassador. He is an associate. As a brand building strategy we have already signed on players in Europe. We have signed Petr Koukal (Czech no. 1), Ville Lang (Finland No.1), Michal Logosz and Adam Cwalina from Poland (world’s no.19 doubles players), and Julie Houman (Denmark).As we mature as a brand, we will be signing on more players in other regions as well.
After your high-profile launch in Singapore, we’ve hardly seen you in the news in India over the last year. Have you lost a bit of the momentum derived from the launch?In the period since our brand launch in Singapore, we have been consolidating our distribution network. We have firmed up our distribution network. We now have two distributors in South East Asia, seven in India, one distributor in China and signed up distributors in 12 countries of Europe. With our distribution and retail strategies now firmly in place, Thwack is now well poised to gain momentum.
The THWACK Range:
According to Reji Mathew, Thwack offers the following:
For badminton:* We have launched the SFX & JFX racquet in collaboration with Ex-world champion Xiong Guobao that has a unique embedded finger print grip.* We have also developed the Super 5 Series racquets specially designedfor players, so that they can choose the racquet that suits their game thebest.(find attached the racket selection poster)* To complement these products, we have also launched accessories likeshuttlecocks, kitbags, strings, grip tapes etc* We are also developing specially designed shoes for badminton.
We also aim to promote Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as a viable fitness optionand not just as a combat sport only.
For Mixed Martial Arts (MMA):* We have developed an entire range of MMA gear like gloves, punch bags, shin guards, etc.* The signature product that we have is the Thwack Humanoid, designedbased on the principles of Wushu.
