The Activewear Tipping Point: India commits to $10 bn export growth by decoupling from the CMT Model
23 November 2025, Mumbai
The 10th edition of Techtextil India (November 19-21, 2025, in Mumbai),featuring the specialized SportTech Pavilion, served as a crucial platform for the domestic apparel industry to declare a single, decisive mandate: India must move Beyond Cut, Make, Trim (CMT) to become a global powerhouse in premium, high-value activewear.
Across three dynamic panel sessions, "The Premium Mandate" and "Beyond CMT" and “Scale without Compromise” conducted by Concepts N Strategies, industry leaders, including sourcing chiefs and major exporters from the Tirupur cluster, outlined the enormous stakes and the radical changes required to capture a larger share of the expanding global market.
The Financial Mandate: Scaling to global dominance
The discussions were framed by the sheer scale of the opportunity, which justifies the aggressive investment being planned. The worldwide activewear market is estimated at $350 billion, with the coveted premium segment—India's primary target—valued at $106 billion.
This high-value segment is the driving engine of apparel growth, accelerating at a 10.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), significantly outpacing general apparel.
India’s domestic activewear market currently stands at approximately ₹16,000 crores, providing a strong foundation for global ambition. To move the needle globally, the Tirupur cluster has set a goal to double its exports from $4.5 billion to $10 billion by 2030, committing a substantial 30–35% of this growth explicitly to Man-Made Fibers (MMF) processing.
This ambition is backed by major capital commitments, including the $105 million investment announced this year by Gokuldas Exports, underscoring the corporate commitment to deep vertical integration necessary to achieve a target revenue of $1 billion by 2030.
Defining Premium: Value, trust, and technical function
The panels agreed that winning the premium mandate is not about price, but about delivering maximum perceived value and performance integrity to the consumer. Abhay Dev, an industry veteran, encapsulated the new definition: "Premium is not price... It’s all about perception, the innovation, the technology, what you offer in the product, and a strong brand story."
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This principle is validated by global disruptors like Lululemon, which scaled from $100 million in 2014 to a $10 billion company by 2024.
For established domestic brands like Page Industries, which produces approximately 600,000 garments every day, premium hinges on unwavering consumer faith, with Sourcing Head Bhaskar Dutta stressing: "Working the brand is nothing but trust." Performance is mandatory; true premium products prioritize "performance and functionality" achieved through proprietary, highly technical manufacturing, such as Ergonomic Construction and Body Mapping.
This technical excellence extends to materials, including the ultrafine 15-denier fabric—weighing just 35 gsm—which provides superior functionality for lightweight outerwear.
Furthermore, premium garments must blend technical function with aesthetics and durability, ensuring they offer "extremely high value" and can transition seamlessly into the growing athleisure lifestyle.
The Strategic Bottleneck: Ecosystem and mindset
The primary obstacle to realizing these targets remains structural: the domestic supply chain's fragmentation and a pervasive cultural mindset regarding investment. India still lacks complete backward integration for high-value raw materials, particularly high-quality nylon yarn, forcing reliance on imports and generating uncompetitive slow lead times. The solution is urgent sourcing localization, driven by international brands who demand reduced turnaround times from the conventional 105 days to the global standard of 75 days.
The long-term fix requires a profound mindset shift: Anandan, Gokuldas Exports countered the common desire for quick Return on Investment (ROI) by stating, "Technology is needed for your sustainment... unless it gets commercialized and the scale goes up, you can't meet the price what you want."
This sustained investment has already allowed his company to improve internal efficiency from 31% to 48%.
To foster future innovation, Shaleen Toshniwal, Chairman, MATEXIL called for pursuing "fundamental research" (the "internal combustion engine") and treating the "manufacturing facility as an innovation facility."
Finally, to enhance cost efficiency, manufacturers are migrating production to new, low-cost clusters like Bhopal and Ranchi, necessitating the urgent establishment of technical training institutes to strengthen the critical layer of middle management.
The Future: Sustainability and ‘Smart Textiles’
Looking ahead, the activewear segment is set to merge apparel with technology, fundamentally changing the product while making environmental responsibility the absolute baseline for market entry. This commitment to sustainability is demonstrated by heavy corporate investment in compliance, including Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) plants, reliance on solar rooftop electricity, and the adoption of waterless dyeing technology to create a transparent, clean supply chain.
The future of the premium segment lies in material science innovation, leading to a Smart Clothing Horizon where wearable technology is seamlessly integrated into the garment.
Panelists foresee clothing that contains embedded smart technologies and conductive materials to monitor health metrics, track performance, and ultimately replace external devices entirely.
This is achieved through advanced manufacturing, such as Tubular Knit Technology with Jacquard, which strategically infuses performance yarns into specific, stress-prone areas. By closing the technology gap and prioritizing this disruptive R&D, India has the clear opportunity to not just catch up, but to build the next generation of athletic apparel worldwide.
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