Hyderabad
Former All England Champion and chief national coach of the Indian badminton team, Pullela Gopichand, has started his latest commercial venture in keeping with the times. Thanks to the pandemic and with a growing number of young adults taking to the internet in a big way, he has launched an e-commerce store Badmintonhub.in. It is co-founded by sports entrepreneurs Afroze Khan and Ronak Sachdeva.
The idea struck the threesome during the pandemic when they realized that there were no dedicated online stores for premium badminton gear. Badmintonhub.in aims to become a one-stop-shop for all badminton players, from start beginners to top pros.
For starters, Badmintonhub.in will be available for online ordering as of now. In the future, however, the promoters have plans to open retail stores in major cities of India. The first set of stores will be open in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune by January 2022.
Gopichand shares that when everything was moving online, badminton players had to rely on the unstructured retail market for their gear needs as there was no reliable e-com platform. He says it is his humble effort to make world-class badminton gear easily accessible to players in India.
However, Badmintonhub.in will not remain just an online store. It aims to take badminton forward in India by supporting promising players and academies. They hope to produce more and more champions from India.