Brands
Agilitas Sports acquires India’s BIS-Licensed Mochiko shoes
Mumbai: Agilitas Sports, innovation-led sportswear and Athleisure solutions platform, co-founded by Abhishek Ganguly, ex-MD, Puma (India & South-East Asia), has in a significant move, announced the acquisition of Mochiko Shoes Pvt Ltd, India’s largest sports footwear manufacturer for the domestic market.
“This acquisition augments Agilitas’ value proposition, by strengthening our supply chain in the rapidly growing sports footwear market. Mochiko’s manufacturing capabilities, operational excellence and strategic partnerships with leading global giants position us to address the government’s clarion call to ‘Make in India’, and to cater to the rising aspirations of an economic superpower, with the largest youth population”, said Agilitas Sports CEO & co-founder Abhishek Ganguly.
Established in 2008, by Virender Awal and a co-founding team of five members, Mochiko Shoes registered a revenue of Rs 642 crore in FY2023 and is estimated to grow by 30 per cent, year-on-year (Y-o-Y).
Mochiko Shoes Pvt. Ltd. founder & CEO Virender Awal spoke about the acquisition, “Joining the Agilitas family propels our ambitions. We are now poised to enhance long-term investments, addressing the soaring demand in the Sports and Athleisure footwear sector. We envision multi-fold and multifaceted growth in our business over the next five-six years, adding jobs and livelihood.”
Today, Mochiko Shoes is a manufacturing partner to leading international brands, such as Adidas, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, Reebok, Asics, Crocs, Decathlon, Clarks, US Polo, among others.
With fully integrated, end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, Mochiko is the first sports footwear manufacturer in India to receive a BIS licence, and is fully compliant with the soon-to-be-implemented Quality Control Orders (QCOs), by the Government of India. Additionally, all its units are ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certified.
The company has manufacturing units located in Dehradun and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) as well as in the National Capital Region (NCR), of Noida. Mochiko employs nearly 10,000 individuals, across the length and breadth of its operations.
The founding team of Agilitas Sports comprises Abhishek Ganguly, the former Managing Director of PUMA India and South East Asia, Atul Bajaj, the former executive director of sales and operations of PUMA India, and Amit Prabhu, former executive director and chief financial officer of PUMA India.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
