In December 2023, a viral reel featured five alternatives to the ubiquitous Air Jordans. Slotted last in the list was a relatively unknown Indian sneaker label: Gully Labs. That placement changed the trajectory of the brand. “That reel got seven million views,” Arjun Singh, co-founder of Gully Labs, told financialexpress.com. “After that, someone tweeted about us—positive stuff. Then someone else started a hate thread. Called us lazy, accused us of being a cheap copy. That blew up too. Funny enough, the guy who started that thread later quote-tweeted himself and said we actually make one of the best shoes.”
What started as a passion project built out of Instagram posts and WhatsApp groups has since evolved into one of India’s most closely watched consumer brands. Singh recalled how the brand started off as a simple manifesto on their website that got 50 to 100 people in a Whatsapp group where regular updates about the company and its sneakers were being shared. Funnily enough, one of the members of the group later became the co-founder of Gully Labs. The brand’s origin story is decidedly unorthodox. After stints in investment banking in Mumbai and Sydney, Singh returned to India during the pandemic. Although he had a US visa in hand, he never used it. Instead, he began exploring ideas from SaaS platforms to bubble tea. “One thing that kept pinching me was that there was a huge sense of aspiration around sneakers. I wanted to collect them,” he said.
Gully Labs, a sneaker company that merges Indian craftsmanship with contemporary streetwear, is targeting Rs 100 crore in revenue by FY28. Singh, however, believes that the milestone may come much earlier. “We have revised our projection. I think I would look at a 4x higher number,” he said.
What frustrated him was the lack of Indian products that felt globally aspirational. “As a country, we’ve never been able to make something that feels aspirational—something for the common good,” Singh said. He wanted to build a sneaker brand that spoke to Indian stories, aesthetics and context. The early traction came not from product launches or advertisements, but from his manifesto. Shared online, it attracted hundreds of like-minded individuals into a WhatsApp group. “There wasn’t a shoe. There wasn’t a business plan. Content was being made. We had a prototype. There was no funding, just content and a growing community,” he noted.
Animesh, co-founder, was one of the people who pre-ordered a pair before the company even had a name. “At that time, we had this thing: if you wanted these sneakers, pay a thousand bucks and reserve them months in advance. Six or seven months later, you’d get them. We didn’t know when exactly,” Singh added. What followed was a grassroots launch, with the founders packaging every order themselves.
Gully Labs, which blends Indian design traditions with modern craftsmanship, recently raised Rs 8.7 crore in seed funding to expand its product portfolio and scale distribution. The round included Rs 7.6 crore in equity and Rs 1.1 crore in venture debt. This follows a pre-seed round of Rs 1.1 crore last year. Its very first capital, however, came from 19 of Singh’s friends and college peers. “In 2024, we raised a small round from friends, college friends, close colleagues. About 19 people participated,” he recalled. That early capital was used to set up a 1,200 square foot factory in Noida.
Today, Gully Labs operates out of a 10,000 square foot facility in Noida, with a monthly manufacturing capacity of 10,000 sneakers, aiming to double that by the end of the year. The company currently offers 25 SKUs and plans to double that by the end of the fiscal.
That edge, of agility, cultural grounding, and in-house manufacturing, Singh claimed has helped Gully Labs stand apart from global sportswear giants. “Nike or Puma can’t replicate what we do—not because they aren’t good at what they do, but because they’re structurally different companies. Their scale limits them,” Singh commented. “If I want to change something, I can walk 10 feet and get it done. A big company? That change would take 12 months.”
Gully Labs’ design sensibility draws heavily from Indian craft and iconography. “For example, we might include Indian embroidery styles like Kantha or Phulkari into every sneaker we make. Nike can’t make that their cornerstone. But we can. It’s in our DNA,” he said. Their bestselling model, the Calico White, is priced at Rs 8,900 and features premium leather and hand-embroidered panels. Each pair takes around four days to complete, going through multiple stages of hand-cutting, stitching and assembly.
International markets are already responding. 25% of Gully Labs’ revenue comes from overseas buyers, including customers in the United States, United Kingdom, UAE, Singapore, Australia and Canada. Singh sees this as just the beginning. “We definitely want to be firmly present in the US market. We’re aiming to open a store there next year,” he said. “Indian craft and design language have never been meaningfully elevated through more contemporary products. That’s the gap. And for us, that’s a massive opportunity.”
In India, Gully Labs sells through its website and a few multi-brand outlets in Mumbai. It plans to expand into MBOs in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi this fiscal and will soon launch its first exclusive brand outlet in Mumbai, spanning 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. A flagship store in Delhi is already taking shape, designed not just as a retail space but as a community hub. The store will feature a live sneaker-making station and a floor dedicated to cultural programming such as workshops and performances. “There’s nothing like it in India,” Singh commented.
The brand’s customers range from sneaker collectors to first-time buyers, with more than half of domestic sales coming from tier 2 cities. “Again, as I said earlier, the internet has democratised taste and aspiration. You don’t need to be near a fancy mall in Delhi anymore to see or want something. That proximity advantage is gone,” Singh noted. The target demographic spans both men and women aged 20 to 35.
For a brand that started with no product, no capital, and no plan, just an idea and a WhatsApp group, Gully Labs is now preparing to compete on a global stage. “The dream is global. I want to build something world-class out of India, something that stands shoulder to shoulder with the biggest names out there. And honestly, I don’t see why that’s not possible.”
Not bad for a brand born in a WhatsApp group.