Enabling Creator-Led Commerce For Brands With ReDesyn, Dubey and Vaidya are aiming at creating a platform to help content creators launch their own e-commerce stores with ease, free of charge

It all started in college, NIFT, Mumbai, to be precise, for Smriti Dubey and Shikhar Vaidya. While pursuing their degrees in Masters of Fashion Management and Bachelor of Fashion Technology, respectively, the duo identified a challenge faced by their colleagues and fellow college students: how to monetize their college graduation projects (designs). The idea stayed with them over the years, through internships and jobs, and finally took the shape of SINS in 2015, private label of products designed by NIFT students. SINS revamped into ReDesyn in 2018 as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for content creators where they could create products on their own and launch it for their fans.

"Over the years, ReDesyn has experienced significant growth and achieved several major milestones. Initially starting as a private label, the company transformed artists' designs into clothing lines for their fans and the millennial crowd," shares Smriti Dubey, co-founder, ReDesyn. With ReDesyn, Dubey and Vaidya are aiming at creating a platform to help content creators launch their own e-commerce stores with ease, free of charge. Seeing the potential in on-demand production, they decided to marry technology and fashion, which allowed creators to open their stores where products were manufactured and shipped by the startup itself.

"As the platform expanded, it opened its doors to designers to create their own fashion products and add them to their stores, fostering a do-it-yourself (DIY) culture. This led to an influx of not only designers & artists; but also digital creators, fashion influencers, standup comedians, dancers, musicians, youtubers creating innovative products, on demand," adds Shikhar Vaidya. ReDesyn has become a collaborative platform for brands and creators by uploading shoppable videos/pictures and securing brand deals. Currently, it's a community of 10,000 creators. ReDesyn was awarded as the tech enabler of the year 2023 by Billennium Divas at NSE Mumbai.

So, was the road to startup an easy one for them? No. While professional challenges are part and parcel of any venture, the biggest challenge was on a personal front. "We faced the challenge of breaking the news of entrepreneurship to their families, as it is not always widely appreciated in middle-class backgrounds," the duo shares in unison. On a professional front, convincing the Indian apparel manufacturing ecosystem and karigars (artisans) to open up to the print-on-demand process and sales and fundraising during the early stages was a roadblock.

The duo holds creator happiness, brand satisfaction, and customer loyalty as the true measure of success. Additionally, Dubey was named the Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 and Young Achiever of the Year 2019 by Ramoji Film City, while Vaidya received Best FAAD Portfolio's Entrepreneur for ReDesyn, Best Graduation Project for the Virtual Fitting Room, and the Distinguished Speaker Award at the Retail Tech Conference.

Many celebrities are also part of the community who have promoted their custom merchandise dropshipped by ReDesyn like Ranveer Singh, Siddharth Malhotra, Neha Kakkar, Adah Sharma, Harshvardhan Rane,Rob, Sumeet Vyas, Dheerak Dhoopar, Mr. Faisu, and Vishal Pandey, to name a few.

Apart from being active in India, the startup has also been interesting in international markets, particularly US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Dubai. ReDesyn is gearing up to further expand globally, catering to overseas content creators and brands and plans to grow the community to 1 million creators and brands.

FACTSHEET-

• Year of inception of the company: 2019
• Turnover for FY 2022-23: 3.5 crores
• No. of employees: 20
• Awarded the Tech Enabler of the year 2023 by Billennium Divas at NSE Mumbai.
• Head office location: Thane, Maharashtra