On 21st June in New Delhi, amid a glitzy unveiling with Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal and designer Masaba Gupta in the front row, Virat Kohli told a packed house that he’d rejected 17 different shoe prototypes before approving the 18th.
He was talking about One8, his lifestyle brand that has now been relaunched by Agilitas Sports, a sportswear company he co-founded and backed with nearly Rs 40 crore.
History suggests celebrity alone rarely builds a lasting consumer brand. India is replete with celebrity-backed brands that have either lost momentum or been sold to larger companies, unable to sustain growth once the initial star power faded. Weak distribution, patchy innovation and pricing missteps have often held them back.
Nykaa has been in talks to acquire Deepika Padukone’s 82°E, and Alia Bhatt sold a majority stake in her baby apparel brand Ed-a-Mamma to Reliance Retail. Sach toothpaste by Sachin Tendulkar, Anushka Sharma’s Nush, Karan Johar’s Tyaani jewellery line and SKULT by Shahid Kapoor are among others that have struggled.
Can Kohli swim against the tide?
Making it Work:
Kohli’s track record with business ventures is mixed. Registrar of Companies filings show that his other fashion-lifestyle brand Wrogn’s total income declined 12.5% on-year
to Rs 232.34 crore in FY25 from Rs 265.65 crore the previous fiscal. In FY 25, Wrogn’s revenue from operations dropped 9% year-on-year to Rs 223 crore, while net losses increased 32% to Rs 75.5 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 56.7 crore a year earlier.
His restaurant and bar chain One8 Commune is being carved out under a separate operating structure after regulatory challenges. Some of Kohli’s other investments include Rage Coffee, Blue Tribe and football club FC Goa.
A critical difference this time around is the partner. Abhishek Ganguly, co-founder of Agilitas Sports, and the former managing director of Puma India and Southeast Asia, is a part of Kohli’s inner circle. They are betting on Agilitas’ operational muscle, acquisition of footwear maker Mochiko Shoes which gives it manufacturing heft, and India licensing rights for Italian shoe brand Lotto in a multi-year deal for bandwidth.
The stakes are high to make that happen. Kohli famously ended a Rs 110-crore endorsement deal with German sports firm Puma India which began in 2017 and was reportedly valued at Rs 300 crore at the time of exit in 2025, to back Agilitas.
“There are more sports celebrity-launched failures than success stories as everything is overshadowed by fame. There’s also a tendency to charge a premium because of celebrity ownership,” says Satbir Singh, founder and chief creative officer of ad agency Thinkstr, adding that Virat Kohli is among the few who can buck the trend.
“Kohli had a headstart with the Puma tie-up earlier, and has the resources to make sure logistics and operations are taken care of. As he is nearing full retirement, it’s highly possible he’ll not be distracted and give One8 his full attention,” Singh points out.
For now the brand is putting in efforts behind the scenes to differentiate. “We are crashing the cycle of creation, designing through fast prototyping, using AI, and 3D modelling. There will be a time when we turn around a shoe from scratch to design to delivery in not more than three months. Compared to, like, two years, in a Puma.”
Ganguly says, adding that the brand took a lot of time to reach where it has, as the team was setting the base, manufacturing, a lab in Noida and R& D centre in Vietnam. “The success of any brand will be if I can make the consumer buy it four times within the first year,” Ganguly reckons.
The clock is ticking.
