How to Build a clothing brand and make 500crores in India? ft. Siddharth Dungarwal | Snitch IBP EP27
Executive Summary
Think School host Ganesh Prasad talks with Snitch founder Siddharth Dungarwal about entering the apparel business, organising production, building customer trust and pricing without constant discounts. These notes cover selected passages from the first roughly 50,000 characters of the English/Hinglish YouTube auto-captions, about the first 40% of the conversation. Later store economics, funding and Shark Tank discussions are not covered; brief cold-open claims are identified as teasers. Caption wording and Hindi terms may contain errors. Company growth and sales claims are the speakers' account, not an independent audit.
Key Takeaways
Apparel is easy to enter but hard to scale
Dungarwal distinguishes starting an apparel business from scaling it. Inventory, adding categories and maintaining quality create growing complexity. Snitch chose a clear men's-apparel focus; the lesson is to define the operational problem before treating early demand as proof of scalable production.
How he got into fashion
At 20 he brokered a fabric deal worth about 2.5 lakh rupees, borrowed from family and friends, then the factory audit delayed shipping 30 to 35 days and the buyer backed out. He cut swatches for retailers, one with 17-18 stores asked for shirts, and he spent 6 to 8 weeks in a small Bangalore unit learning production.
The supply chain, step by step
Design, procurement, sampling, then testing, including reports on wear, pilling, colour fade and shrinkage, then choosing a factory and order quantity. He explains job work (you buy materials and pay the factory a fixed cost) versus an FOB order through a buying house, which costs roughly 8 to 10% more.
Standardise everything
Snitch uses a single label and tag and has standardised thread, fusing and washing, with a set of SOPs naming the factory that makes each item best. Traditional higher-priced brands tweak labels each collection, which adds complexity and time.
Trust is the moat
He says keep every promise from day one: launch new styles every day and make returns and exchanges hassle-free for 99% of people. In an industry short on trust with suppliers and customers, consistency is what he credits.
Honest pricing
He says Snitch believes in true and honest pricing. He says 90% of website products carry no discount, unlike brands that sell 30-40% at full price, 30-40% at 30% off and the rest at 70% off, which teaches customers to wait for sales.
Treat the opening revenue anecdote as a teaser
The cold open mentions that boxers contributed almost half of revenue at an early stage. This suggests how one category can support a brand's beginnings, but the excerpt does not provide enough context to generalise the figure. The later discussion is outside these notes' source coverage.
The Conversation Breakdown
Apparel is easy to enter but hard to scale
⏱ Untimed topicDungarwal distinguishes starting an apparel business from scaling it. Inventory, adding categories and maintaining quality create growing complexity. Snitch chose a clear men's-apparel focus; the lesson is to define the operational problem before treating early demand as proof of scalable production.
How he got into fashion
⏱ Untimed topicAt 20 he brokered a fabric deal worth about 2.5 lakh rupees, borrowed from family and friends, then the factory audit delayed shipping 30 to 35 days and the buyer backed out. He cut swatches for retailers, one with 17-18 stores asked for shirts, and he spent 6 to 8 weeks in a small Bangalore unit learning production.
The supply chain, step by step
⏱ Untimed topicDesign, procurement, sampling, then testing, including reports on wear, pilling, colour fade and shrinkage, then choosing a factory and order quantity. He explains job work (you buy materials and pay the factory a fixed cost) versus an FOB order through a buying house, which costs roughly 8 to 10% more.
Standardise everything
⏱ Untimed topicSnitch uses a single label and tag and has standardised thread, fusing and washing, with a set of SOPs naming the factory that makes each item best. Traditional higher-priced brands tweak labels each collection, which adds complexity and time.
Trust is the moat
⏱ Untimed topicHe says keep every promise from day one: launch new styles every day and make returns and exchanges hassle-free for 99% of people. In an industry short on trust with suppliers and customers, consistency is what he credits.
Honest pricing
⏱ Untimed topicHe says Snitch believes in true and honest pricing. He says 90% of website products carry no discount, unlike brands that sell 30-40% at full price, 30-40% at 30% off and the rest at 70% off, which teaches customers to wait for sales.
Treat the opening revenue anecdote as a teaser
⏱ Untimed topicThe cold open mentions that boxers contributed almost half of revenue at an early stage. This suggests how one category can support a brand's beginnings, but the excerpt does not provide enough context to generalise the figure. The later discussion is outside these notes' source coverage.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Standardised supply chain
Use repeatable labels, tags and production processes, then identify the factory suited to each product. Dungarwal contrasts that with constant collection-by-collection changes that slow execution.
Promises as trust
Make clear commitments around new arrivals, quality and returns, then keep them consistently. He treats reliability with customers and suppliers as part of the brand's advantage.
Pricing without perpetual sales
Dungarwal prefers a price customers can understand without waiting for a discount. He argues that constant markdowns teach customers to delay buying, though the right approach depends on the product and market.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Write down your top five supply-chain steps and the single standard for each.
- ✓Decide which promise you can keep every day, such as new arrivals or easy returns, and commit.
- ✓Test one product line without discounts to see whether customers still buy.
- ✓Track one promise, such as dispatch or returns, and measure how consistently the business keeps it.
Notable Quotes
“apparel is one of the most easiest business to start really but it is the most difficult one to scale”
“over the last 30 months we've grown 12x”
“I think one is um being true to whatever you promise right from day one”
The One Thing to Remember
apparel is one of the most easiest business to start really but it is the most difficult one to scale