A retail store today is expected to do much more than display products. It must invite discovery, encourage interaction and give consumers a reason to step in, explore and engage with the brand. Campus Activewear is embracing this shift with a redesigned retail format that places experience at the heart of its physical presence.
The brand opened its first store in the new format at Roop Nagar, New Delhi, this year. Spread across 1,640 sq. ft., the store brings together a range of interactive and experiential elements, including lace customisation, a dedicated photo-op, styling boards and distinct product zones. Its expanded assortment spans sneakers, running and walking footwear, the premium ÉLAN range, women’s and kids’ collections, as well as apparel and accessories.
The new format signals a larger shift in how Campus Activewear views its stores – as spaces that go beyond transactions to strengthen consumer engagement and showcase the breadth of its portfolio.
In an exclusive interview with IMAGES Business of Fashion, Uplaksh Tewary, Chief Operating Officer, Campus Activewear, discusses the brand’s retail expansion plans, the growing role of premiumisation, opportunities in women’s and kids’ footwear, and how experience-led retail is shaping its next phase of growth.
With 311 exclusive stores across the country, including 40 in Delhi NCR, Campus Activewear is looking to significantly scale its physical presence. The company plans to open 80–100 stores annually, with an ambition to reach 500 stores within the next 24 months.
A Store Built for Experience, Not Just Sales
Campus Activewear is moving away from product-led display, with Tewary saying the new format is meant to turn retail from a point of sale into a place where consumers interact with the brand. “We used to look at retail purely as a channel of sale but now we are trying to convert it into a channel of experience, where consumers come, interact with the brand, and see the vastness and breadth of what we offer.”
The store is designed to show the full range of the brand, including newer categories. “This retail environment gives the consumer a much more immersive experience, through better storytelling, through customization, and through a very minimalist yet energetic look. They also get to understand the entire product ensemble the brand has to offer,” Tewary explains.
He says the earlier stores were built to prove the concept and build reach, and they showed only part of what the brand offers. The new ones offer so much more.
“We wanted to prove the concept, build reach, and use stores as a way for the market to understand the best the brand has to offer, because general trade carries only a very limited range of what we offer.”
The next phase, according to Tewary, will be bigger and more experiential. “We have gone through phase one of expansion, with about 300-odd stores on that model, and it has been very successful.”
“The people who have come to our stores once will want a much more elevated experience to come back. So the next phase of growth will be on a bigger store size, with a wider assortment and a much better retail experience,” he adds.
Campus Activewear plans to roll out this format widely. “We believe this will be the store we expand into aggressively, and you will see multiple iterations of it across the country very soon.”
Retail Expansion: 500 Stores in 24 Months
After one quarter, all Campus Activewear stores will move over to the new format while the older store model will be discontinued, says Tewary.
The company plans to open 80 to 100 stores per year, while maintaining that run rate for the next two to three years. “We don’t see this slowing down anytime soon. Our plan is to hit 500 stores within the next 24 months and continue from there,” he adds.
Markets and Formats: West, South and the High Street
With the North already expanded aggressively in phase one, Tewary says the next wave will focus on West and South India, largely through high street stores in cities that lack relevant malls.
“We have a very strong association in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 markets alike, because our product portfolio and brand positioning stay relevant everywhere,” he states.
One of the brand’s major cities in terms of store count is Delhi NCR, with over 40 stores. Bangalore is one of the brand’s top five cities online, while Bihar is number three state from a revenue generated point of view. “It’s a dichotomy in itself. Because we have such a great product proposition, the consumer trusts us to a level where we have been able to offer newer and greater products than before. So we are very relevant everywhere,” he explains.
From an expansion point of view, the newer markets of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Southern India will see a slightly higher propensity of expansion going ahead, Tewary says.
A large part of this expansion will be through the high street format – about 80 to 85% – and about 10 to 15% will be in malls. The expansion will be split 70/30 between franchise and COCO (company-owned, company-operated).
Apparel Becomes a Default in Every Store
Every new store will now carry apparel, and about 100 of the existing stores already do. The company is targeting 10% of revenue from apparel in these stores, rising to about 15% with ancillary categories such as socks, caps, and any other categories the brand decides to introduce in the future.
“A lot of stores are in that range today, but the maturity has not come as they have not even seen one complete season yet. We are launching winterwear for the first time next month, so it needs a complete year cycle before we can rationalise that number. But aspirationally, we want non-footwear categories to be 15% of our business,” Tewary notes.
From a store space point of view, about 10 to 15% of space generally goes to apparel and other non-footwear. About 8 to 10 feet of wall space goes to these categories today.
Sneakers, Women’s and Kids: Filling the White Spaces
For the last three years, Campus Activewear has pivoted aggressively on sneakers. Sneakers were almost 20% of the brand’s total volume last year, and this number was almost zero three years ago. Similarly, their women’s segment grew over 30% last year.
“Wherever we see white spaces, we go after them, and sneakers are a very big white space for us. Elan is, in a way, an extension of that: new casual, a slightly more differentiated lifestyle position at the end of the day,” Tewary says, adding that the women’s segment will be a big focus for the brand going forward. “We believe this category is very under-represented and under-served in the market. Going ahead, sneakers, along with Elan, which is a lifestyle extension, and the women’s category will be the core drivers of our growth.”
Tewary says the other category which needs to be rethought is the kids category, with younger age groups now in focus. “We have looked at kids as a very single-dimensional business, essentially an extension of the men’s business, using those same sizes. Now we are completely rethinking how we look at this category.”
He says that Campus Activewear is entering slightly younger age groups in kids’ footwear. Over the next three to four months, the brand will launch a wide range of new products, and kids, women’s and lifestyle will account for a much higher share of the mix.
Lifestyle will be driven primarily by Elan, along with an extension of the sneaker portfolio.
Channel Mix: Where the Revenue Comes From
General trade contributes about half of Campus Activewear’s revenue and online about a third, while retail, modern trade make up the remaining 15 to 16%. Tewary says the consumer moves freely across channels and that offline remains critical for a trial-based category.
Consumers have moved from general trade to modern retail, online and now quick commerce, he says. Campus Activewear is among the top three players on most online platforms, and all channels are growing, including general trade in double digits. Tewary expects the highest share of growth to come from self-controlled channels like retail, along with franchise.
Offline accounts for over 60% of revenue, and Tewary does not see that reducing anytime soon. “Since we are in a purely trial-based and size-based category, an offline channel will always be critical,” he says. Online platforms like Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra, he adds, reach consumers Campus Activewear could not reach directly.
He describes today’s shopper as “genuinely omnichannel,” discovering the brand on Instagram, browsing the website and then visiting a store to try the product.
Campus Activewear’s next phase, he says, is a seamless journey where the same experience and offering follow the consumer across the website, franchise stores and company stores.
Stores matter most for first-time buyers of categories like sneakers and Elan. “If I can control the retail environment in which they understand and experience the product, the experience will be much better and the adoption much higher,” he says.
Staying Value-Led While Moving Premium
Campus Activewear’s edge lies in value rather than price, even as it moves into higher-priced categories. “The biggest strength of Campus is the value proposition we offer. It’s not about the price point; it’s about the value proposition the brand has to offer, and that has been our moat for the longest time,” Tewary explains.
He adds that this holds true even for the brand’s more premium bets, such as sneakers priced at Rs 1,700-1,800 and Élan products at Rs 2,000-2,200.
“Even when we launch Elan, which is a slightly more premium proposition, or sneakers, which may set a premium position, the value I’m able to put into the product at the price point is what matters.”
Tewary says, Campus Activewear is not raising prices on its existing range. Instead, it is layering higher-priced products on top. “I’m not making my current products more expensive. I’m adding a newer product or category on top, where the consumer is also willing to pay a higher price because it’s a more elevated design and a more technologically superior product.”
The core, value-seeking customer is not being left behind. Newer categories such as badminton and sneakers carry a higher average selling price (ASP), so a growing share of them lifts the brand’s premium quotient without any change in pricing.
He further states that control over supply chain and pricing keeps the value position intact. “We control our own supply chain and our own pricing, so going ahead that position will stay strong. Our product mix will drive the premiumization journey for us.”
Going ahead, the brand will keep adding to the premium share of its business. Tewary frames the goal as a broader presence in the consumer’s life rather than a pricing push. “I think the consumer is expecting us to drive a newer product story, moving from share of wallet to share of life.”
That means being present across the day, from the gym to the office to an evening out, with sneakers and Élan playing different roles. “We want to be part of their entire life and not just one particular occasion.” Premium, he says, is a natural result of that expansion, and one the brand intends to pursue without diluting its value positioning.
As part of this premiumisation push, the brand launched Élan by Campus Activewear in June 2026, also marking its entry into neo-casual footwear. Pitched as an elegant alternative to conventional formal footwear, it was backed by the ‘Most Elegant Man in Town’ campaign fronted by actor Jim Sarbh and Tewary says the response has been strong.
“It’s been an extremely positive response. We launched aggressively in our own stores, on our own website, and in some key marketplaces.” He adds that Élan sits apart from the rest of the portfolio, since Campus Activewear has not historically sold new-casual or office-casual products. “There is a very strong degree of separation between our core business and Elan.” Consumer acceptance, he says, has exceeded expectations, and a second phase is due shortly.
The Elan 2.0 series will be launching soon with the second phase of its product extensions launches.
Measuring Success: Throughput, Basket Size and Repeat Rate
According to Tewary, the first test of the new format is commercial, with each store expected to deliver more. “We open stores to drive the commercial side of our business, on a revenue and profitability basis, so throughput per store has to start going up.”
Beyond sales, Campus Activewear will also look at how shoppers respond to the experience, with two metrics in particular. “Since it’s an experiential store, we want strong feedback from consumers on the store, and we want to track basket size and repeat rate. Those two metrics we will track most aggressively for this store.”
The brand wants to know whether the dedicated category sections are encouraging shoppers to buy more across the range. It will also watch whether customers return more often.
If both numbers rise, Tewary says, the format will have done its job on the customer front and the commercial one.
Growth Outlook
Tewary says the company is setting an ambitious course. For the next two to three years, Campus Activewear is targeting growth in the mid-teens, with an internal range of 17 to 19%.
“That is the direction we are working in, and we are working from a foundational level up to deliver those numbers,” he concludes.
