In an exclusive interaction with MediaBrief, Karthik Gurumurthy, Chief Executive Officer, TENxYOU, speaks about the brand’s mission to encourage more Indians to play sport, its focus on designing products for everyday players, and the role of accessibility in building a sports culture. He also speaks about how TENxYOU is adapting footwear for Indian playing conditions, expanding beyond metros, and using its latest campaign, ‘Never Stop Playing’, to celebrate the joy of participation over performance.
In a country where sport is deeply woven into everyday conversations but not always into everyday routines, TENXYOU is working to make movement and play more accessible. Co-founded by Karthik Gurumurthy, Karan Arora, and Sachin Tendulkar, the Bengaluru-headquartered sports and athleisure brand creates shoes, apparel, and accessories tailored to Indian body types, with a focus on comfort, versatility, and joy.
Speaking about the starting point of the brand, CEO Karthik Gurumurthy shares that TENxYOU’s starting point is not simply a sportswear opportunity. It comes from a larger question around how sport fits into Indian culture, and whether the country’s enthusiasm as a sporting audience is translating into participation.
Elaborating on this, he says, “One of the principles on which we started the brand was built around Sachin’s larger vision of transforming India from being just a sports-loving nation into a sports-playing nation. He spoke about this in Parliament in 2017, about moving India from simply watching and loving sport to actually playing it.
He continues, “When I first met him in 2024, he spoke about how we have huge crowds at IPL matches and people watching football matches at pubs or elsewhere. We all love sport, but we don’t necessarily play it. If India wants to win more medals across sports, it has to become part of our culture, where people start playing sport from a very young age. When that system changes, we will start producing more medals.
He adds, “We have seen this happen in cricket. People start playing from a young age and, by the time they reach competitive levels, they have already gone through several levels of filtration. The best players eventually rise to the top, which is how you build a world-class team. That same philosophy needs to apply across sports. A lot of people need to play, and sport needs to become part of the culture,” Gurumurthy added.
Building sportswear for everyday players
Reflecting on the opportunity TENXYOU identified, the CEO says, “The idea was to build for people who play regularly, not just for professionals. There are several international brands that make products for professional athletes, but who is developing products for someone who is just starting to play or is at the entry level?
He continues, “We wanted to give those consumers products that are high quality and high performance, but not necessarily designed for international-level performance. Instead, they should have features that help prevent injuries. If you and I were to go and play a sport, the more important thing would be making sure we don’t twist an ankle or sprain a hamstring.
“That is why,” Gurumurthy says, “a lot of our product features focus on stability rather than simply making the shoe extremely light.”
Making sportswear versatile and accessible
Elaborating on the other core philosophies behind TENxYOU, Gurumurthy says, “Our philosophy comes from the fact that people who are beginning to play a sport are unlikely to buy one shoe for sport, another for work and another for going out. The product therefore needs to be versatile. It needs to have a style of its own so that you can play in it, but also comfortably wear it when you go to a mall or elsewhere.
“New Balance brought that idea of sports style beautifully to the international market. It started as a running shoe, but today you see people wearing New Balance at airports, malls and everywhere else. That was a philosophy Sachin was very clear about,” Gurumurthy added.
“The other principle was accessibility,” he adds. “Sachin’s reach extends across the country, so we need to develop products that are accessible to a child in Kulgam in Kashmir or a small town in Arunachal Pradesh. Accessibility means both price and serviceability. These are the core principles with which we started TENxYOU.”
From individual excellence to collective joy
Explaining how TENxYOU seeks to differentiate itself from traditional international sports brands, Gurumurthy says, “In many ways, we are the opposite of what international brands traditionally represent. International brands often speak about individual excellence. We are about collective joy. It is about your group of friends, people in your society, your college or school, playing for the joy of playing and not simply for winning.
“We want to create the kind of joy that comes from playing with your friends. None of you have to be experts. There will be bloopers, some people will fall, some may be overweight, but at the end of it, you play the game and perhaps go and have chai together. That is the joy we want to create and the reason we want people to get back into playing,” he adds.
Expanding TENxYOU’s sportswear reach across India
When asked how TENxYOU is making its products more accessible across markets, Gurumurthy says the idea of accessibility is already influencing TENxYOU’s distribution model. While its website allows the brand to reach consumers across the country, Gurumurthy sees physical distribution as particularly important for a category where consumers often want to experience the product before buying it.
Elaborating on this, Gurumurthy says, “Absolutely. It has to be a brand that is accessible. Yesterday, we were checking our distribution and we are now reaching almost 9,000 pin codes across the country through our website. But these 9,000 pin codes are only our online reach. With our cricket shoes, we also work with distributors to reach smaller and smaller towns across the country. We have a field team that goes out and checks these markets.”
“There is a very interesting loop we have created between online and offline because this is a category where consumers need to touch and feel the product. It is different from something like ordering a Diet Coke on Instamart. A Diet Coke is a Diet Coke; you don’t need to touch or feel it.
With a shoe, you need to understand its weight, durability and whether it fits you properly. So we reach out to sports stores across the country and cricket stores internationally.”
“There is a lot of demand for cricket products globally. Our goal is to become the number one brand in cricket and ensure that anyone who wants to play the sport is not intimidated by the lack of accessibility, either in distribution or price.
“At the same time, once someone picks up the sport, we have products at the highest level as well. So consumers can move up the ladder with us rather than being pushed out of the funnel,” Gurumurthy added.
While TENxYOU’s current distribution mix remains online-led, the brand expects its physical retail footprint to play a larger role as it scales. On this, Gurumurthy says, “Today, we are roughly 70% online and 30% offline. The offline business is predominantly through cricket shoes, which we distribute through sporting distributors across the country.
“Around the end of October or November, we plan to launch our first set of stores. Eventually, the business will become much more store-forward because, as I mentioned, this is a touch-and-feel category. We plan to open at least 15 to 20 stores over the next 12 months.
“The idea is for the business to become significantly more offline-led over time,” the CEO emphasises.
Designing sports shoes for Indian playing conditions
Speaking about TENxYOU’s product design philosophy and how it is tailored to Indian playing conditions, Gurumurthy says, “The single biggest thing we focus on is disproportionate attention to design principles around comfort, specifically for Indian playing conditions and Indian bodies. We are very clear that we are a sports-first brand, not a lifestyle-first brand. Whatever products we make need to be extremely comfortable for playing sport.”
He continues, “Indian playing conditions are very different. We don’t always play on lush green fields or professional turfs. We play on maidans with bumps and small gravel. That means we need to focus heavily on the quality of the rubber and whether the outsole provides enough grip.
“Another major design principle,” Gurumurthy says, “is that our shoes are wider because Indian feet are generally wider. We also have to consider that when people’s feet swell, a wider shoe provides greater comfort. The width of the base is also important because it gives you stability. The more surface area you have, the better the grip. If you make it narrow, there is a greater chance of twisting your foot.”
Why comfort and fit matter for Indian feet
The focus on comfort extends to the design and construction of the shoe’s insole. Speaking about this Gurumurthy says, “The key comfort principle is our work with a California-based company called Insight, which specialises in insole design. They have worked for decades and studied millions of foot samples globally.
“Their learning from India indicated that a significant proportion of people are flat-footed. That means you need a more pronounced arch. Also, for someone who isn’t a highly active sports person, the heel needs to be locked properly so that it doesn’t move.”
He continues, “We worked closely with them to develop our insole. It is thick, has a pronounced arch and uses what we call a bucket-seat design, which locks the foot in place. It is also dual density, with a softer section under the heel and a firmer section elsewhere. You could put 100 kilograms of weight on it for a month and the shape would not disappear.”
Gurumurthy adds, “A lot of international brands focus heavily on professional runners and reducing the weight of the shoe. When they reduce the weight, they can also reduce the weight of the insole. That may not be appropriate for someone who is just beginning to play a sport.
“For us,” he reiteriates, “comfort required for playing sport is something we take very seriously, and we don’t compromise on the quality. For example, our insoles costs us around ₹200. You have shoes in the market selling for ₹1,500, while some brands may be working with insoles that cost ₹30–40. These are principles we will not compromise on.”
Never Stop Playing: Celebrating the joy of sport
The product philosophy finds expression in TENxYOU’s latest campaign, Never Stop Playing. Elaborating on the campaign and the thinking behind it, Gurumurthy says, “It again comes back to the philosophy that novices and people who are just beginning to play should also be able to enjoy sport.
“The campaign,” he says, “captures the joy of regular people playing. You won’t see professional athletes in it. You see very ordinary people. There is a big man in the campaign, but the surprise is that he isn’t playing cricket. He is playing tennis. There are mothers doing Zumba and a 55-year-old man trying to run faster. There are kids playing football in the rain and celebrating together.”
“There is also a 15-year-old girl we met who plays at district level. She is playing street cricket with a group of boys in the bylanes of Dadar. While they are playing, a scooter comes through and someone tells them to move quickly. It brings back the nostalgia of how we used to play as children. Then, when the girl hits a six, someone standing in a balcony takes off his T-shirt and waves it in celebration. These are the celebrations of ordinary people playing the game. There is no focus on winning or excellence. It is simply about the joy of playing with your friends.”
“Whenever I look at the brand, I am reminded of a beautiful scene, where a character sees a group of friends and imagines himself with his own friends. It makes him reconnect with them. That is the imagery we want to create for TENxYOU. When you see people having fun playing, you should feel, ‘What am I missing?’ You should call your friends and go and play. That is the campaign. It ends with a strong punchline where the master is actually playing tennis,” Gurumurthy adds.
Taking TENxYOU’s campaign from digital to the playground
The campaign will be supported by a digital-led promotional strategy, while TENxYOU also plans to create physical experiences around the idea of playing. Elaborating on the campaign’s promotional strategy, Gurumurthy says, “We are starting with a lot of digital-led promotion, along with creators and influencers who will build on the campaign.
“We have also developed our own soundtrack, which is a very nice street version of the song. There will be a lot of promotion around the soundtrack itself, with the aim of turning it into a viral moment for anyone who wants to play sport.”
“We are also planning a large activation with one of the game aggregator platforms,” he adds. “We are looking at a ‘happy hours’ concept where around 100 venues in different locations will be booked, allowing people to play that weekend with the experience sponsored by us.
He continues, “We also have tie-ups with entry-level and novice clubs. For example, there is a pickleball club in Bombay and a runners’ group in Tapi. These are smaller communities of people who go out for a run and then finish it with a samosa and chai. These are exactly the people we want to celebrate, and they will also help take the campaign onto digital platforms.”
“Closer to October,” he says, “we may explore something around theatres because the soundtrack is very catchy and could work well in that environment. By November, we are also planning to launch our stores, so the campaign will become much more activated around the stores.”
Balancing Sachin Tendulkar’s presence with brand purpose
Finally, speaking about how TENxYOU is balancing Sachin’s presence with the broader purpose of the brand, Gurumurthy says, “A lot of new brands start with a philosophy centred around the product. More often than not, it becomes product marketing. If you have a celebrity, everything can also start revolving around that celebrity. We have tried to capture the purpose of the brand because we are in this for the long term. We want to communicate the purpose of the brand, but not through the celebrity alone.”
“It has to be communicated through people like you and me so that it feels relatable. At the same time, the celebrity should be shown as someone who is similar to us rather than someone placed on a higher pedestal. That is what the world is looking for now, authenticity. That is the most important thing for us, and hopefully that is what comes through in the campaign,” Gurumurthy adds.
