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Driving to a game: Pune couple gives sports retail a winning edge
Shortly before a badminton tournament in Baner, a player discovered that his racket was broken. He called up Aditya Singh Jadhon and requested a racket of the same model and brand as he had a match. Jadhon, who lives in NIBM, drove directly to the venue and, within an hour, delivered the racket.
Another time, it was a family that was getting ready to travel on holiday when they realised that they needed football and badminton equipment. It was 4 am when they called Jadhon. This time, he drove to the Pune railway station with the gear.
If you see a car packed with sports equipment driving through the traffic on Pune streets, you can be sure it is Jadhon and/or his partner Neha Singh out on a delivery. The couple has founded a unique company, Sports on The Wheel, which is dedicated to delivering sports equipment. 'I still remember the date, August 20, 2021, when our startup set out for the first time in the heavy rain and sold out all the goods,' says Jadhon.
'Both of us come from a sports background and are ardent sports lovers. I played badminton and was selected for the nationals from school. But, like many families, mine insisted more on studies. So, though I enjoyed sports, I couldn't pursue it. But, I always wanted to do something with sports,' says Singh.
Jadhon, who belongs to India's capital city of exam coaching centres, Kota, Rajasthan, was a swimmer, badminton player and captain of the school cricket team. Long after he became an engineer – he is a project manager with a major IT company – Jadhon still felt the adrenaline rush of sports.
It was after the lockdown that the couple noticed that the people of Pune had started concentrating on their health. Sports on The Wheel tied up with a Japanese sports equipment manufacturer to supply a range of equipment.
The company is driven by passion and an unconventional business model. It has created thousands of clients in Pune over social media, personal relationship-building exercises, and a network of coaches and players all the way from the housing society level to the top. Their market seems to live on WhatsApp groups, which are kept updated on the locations that the car, laden with cricket bats, an assortment of balls, shuttlecocks, rackets, gloves, and pads, among others, would be visiting on a given day.
'Our model is based on the things that people want from us. One of the major factors for all Indians is the cost of a product. We have the concept that we don't own any shop. Everything we have, we put in our car. That way, we minimise costs. We don't have rental and other overheads. With a brick-and-mortar store, we would have been confined to one area. People would have to come to us. Now, since we are free to move around, we just deliver wherever people want us to go,' says Jadhon.
Singh adds that they never push sell or upsell; in fact, they do the reverse. Every so often, they encounter people who want to start playing at a club but feel the social pressure to invest in high-end equipment. 'We talk to them about why, since they are beginners, they should buy a basic racket to learn with. An amateur player might crash a racket or break it, so it is pointless to invest Rs 10,000 on a racket when a Rs 2,000 one would do,' she says. Many clients keep coming back to them even after moving overseas.
It is, possibly, the sports gene that makes the couple aim for passion over profit – and prove that this is a winning formula. Sports on The Wheel has spread beyond Pune. It is supplying to Mumbai and even sending equipment to other parts of India, the UK and Saudi Arabia.
'We can now say that we are making a profit as well. In the earlier years, there was much profit, but we were happy doing what we were doing,' says Singh. Whether it is a corporate tournament, a club match or to motivate a child before a big game, a lot of people call up Sports on The Wheel. 'People in sports are very enthusiastic and we enjoy meeting them,' says Jadhon.
Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More
