The Souled Store
Putting the ‘pop’ in pop culture
The sock to your Dobby, the ring to your Gollum, the jarvis to your Iron Man, the people’s elbow to your The Rock, the red underwear to your Superman, the Chandler to your Joey, the Luke to your Leia, the Bamm-Bamm to your Pebbles... this could go on. This is the geared Mumbai-based e-commerce D2C startup - The Souled Store in a nutshell.
The brand is homegrown whose ethos is to celebrate fan-dom by bringing homegrown merch and fashion label official merchandise of one's favourite Hollywood movies, TV shows, sports teams, comedians, and musicians, with a wide range of kickass graphic designs.
Started by four pop culture enthusiasts, Vedang Patel, Harsh Lal, Aditya Sharma and Rohin Samtaney, in 2013, The Souled Store is India’s largest online merchandising platform with licenses such as Disney, Warner Bros., WWE, IPL, Turner.
The brand’s product portfolio includes t-shirts, joggers, boxers, shirts, polos, jackets, sweaters, hoodies, to name a few. The brand has a 3+ million customer base and 150+ licenses.
Since its inception in 2013, The Souled Store has been setting new benchmarks every year. With recent highlights being multi-crore funding that’s also paved the way for other D2C brands to dream big and a series of stellar campaigns featuring OTT and YouTube superstars Ashish Chanchlani, Mithila Palkar (Little Things), Ayush Mehra (Call My Agent: Bollywood), Barkha Singh (Engineering Girls S2), Ahsaas Channa (Girls Hostel) and others.
Apart from running a hugely successful e-tail business via their website and app, they have also successfully launched their fifth brick-and-mortar store in Pune, in November 2021. The brand operates four stores in Mumbai – and is looking forward to opening doors to their first-ever retail & experience space in Bengaluru, spanning across a whopping 5000 sq. ft.
What’s in store next?
New launches in the pipeline that will be sure to please some die-hard fans of cult franchises. Along with that, the tentpole Supima Collection for men and women will be in focus for the next quarter. Made from the world’s finest cotton, Supima is 2x stronger, 2x softer, has vibrant colours, and lasts way longer than a normal tshirt! The fabric is so rare that only 1% of the World’s cotton is Supima. Also delving into the active wear space.
Why the name ‘The Souled Store’ ?
It makes for a great pun on the word ‘sold’, since they ‘sell’ stuff, is what the team has to say.
But apart from that, the Souled Store, they mention, was born out of the idea of loving what they did - following their soul. Their philosophy is to give everyone something they’ll love, something they can use to express themselves and simply put, something to put a smile on their face.That's the soul reason they are called ‘The Souled Store’
And now Meet the Founders
Vedang Patel is the Co-founder and Director at The Souled Store and is responsible for Designing, Digital Promotions, Finance, Analytics and Inventory Management for the brand. He has been successfully leading the brand’s coveted design team and personally handles the entire process, from idea to execution. He also leads digital marketing and promotions, which has been one of the pivoting points for TSS. Besides this, he also fronts the team that handles the finance, supply chain and inventory management. Vedang is a fan of F1 racing and spends his free time reading up on physics and astronomy. He loves playing the guitar and often makes up extempore songs. He also enjoys playing cricket, tennis and squash and is always looking for company to go for morning jogs with.
Rohin Samtaney is the Co-Founder and Director at The Souled Store. He currently looks into Branding & Communication, Marketing, and Customer Relations. Rohin believes The Souled Store is exactly where he was meant to be; given his passion for pop-culture, including collecting posters, classic movies and being a fan of music legends like Linkin’ Park, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. When he is not working, you will find him playing a game of Squash or Tennis. He also enjoys cycling. Rohin has also successfully completed 3 half marathons. He also loves to read (books, long-format articles, interesting newsletters) and podcasts. Films continue to be a big love of his life and he hopes to write and direct a movie someday.
Harsh Lal probably best embodies The Souled Store’s philosophy of following one’s soul, as can be seen from the multiple hats he’s worn. He took up science in junior college, graduated in law, did internships and job stints in journalism and advertising, took 6 months off to learn tattooing, and eventually joined his childhood friend Vedang at The Souled Store. His interests outside work include kickboxing, tennis, researching on what TV show to watch next, and a new found love of podcasts. Feel free to ask him for recommendations!
Aditya Sharma is the Co-founder and Director at The Souled Store. Prior to joining The Souled Store, Aditya was associated with Tresvista where he was a part of the research team. Here he worked on numerous industry research presentations, research documents and competitive analysis documents. Today, he successfully leads operations, sourcing, manufacturing & tech at The Souled Store. Aditya has a thing for mountains and music. He travels at least 2-3 times a year with this music instrument called the ‘Handpan’. In his free time, he chooses to play his drum kit or go hiking.