Transform: Know about India's first-ever badminton brand 

India is slowly aiming to tackle its way out of the economic setback received due to COVID-19 through many entrepreneurial activities. In the past couple of months, new ventures are being opened, which is gaining traction, with the government's stimulus towards creating an 'Atmanirbhar' India. Apart from cricket, Olympic sports are today gaining popularity and to meet the need of the hour, Ram Malhotra of Meerut-based VICKY Sports has his started a new venture, Transform Badminton, which seeks to end the dominance of Chinese products in the category.

Transform Badminton is India’s first professional badminton brand that aims to create an evolution of homegrown badminton racquets being manufactured in India and exported globally. Made out of Military-grade graphite, Transform racquets have the best weight to strength ratio which is at par if not better with the best racquets that are currently imported for playing in India.

Transform racquets

VICKY Sports-- one of India's top 3 sports brands having a mass appeal— and specializing in sports good manufacturing since 1978; the racquets are equipped with perfect balance and have the ability to appeal to the new age badminton players with its design, style and colours. It will be the first time India’s most successful Olympic sports discipline will see an Indian company manufacturing world-class badminton racquets and other accessories at an affordable price compared to the existing brands for the sports and fitness enthusiasts.

Ram Malhotra, who was toying with the idea of launching his own badminton brand and after extensive research in technology, raw material procurement and developing attractive designs- Transform was given shape during the lockdown. Though the pandemic halted the pace of the work the brand has already started its operations and will be fully functional by the end of the year.

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All Rackets manufactured by using the best quality military graphite; the nylon shuttles are at par with the best in the world and 100% made in India. One of the other major elements of the sport of Badminton is the “shoes” and they are also currently being developed in India though the raw materials are currently procured from abroad. Along with quality special emphasis has been given to designing the shoes and the apparels to draw catchy styles that the millennials prefer.

Transform has signed Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian, Chetan Anand who is not only been one of the top Indian shuttlers but also been working at the grassroots and aims to identify and breed champions. Transform as a Brand aims to become the first “Aatmanirbhar Brand” in Badminton and empower the grassroots as well as all badminton players with world-class badminton equipment at a competitive rate that is homegrown.

Talking about his association with Transform, Anand told The Bridge, "It's a very unique concept. And I think it's a great privilege, a proud moment for me also to be associated with Transforms because it's an Indian first international brand. And I think India has all the necessary resources, I think and we should make use of it. And we need to promote India as well. I've seen in Ram, the same passion which I had when I was playing badminton, so I think they will do a great job and they will create history with the Transform and Indian badminton."

So where does Transform stand in comparison to the foreign brands which has dominated the market so far? "I think, and the quality of the rackets and equipment is up to the par with all the international brands. People also should realize that we have the same quality brand equipment and should promote it over other foreign brands," says Anand.

Commonwealth Games medallist shuttler Chetan Anand with Transform racquet

After taking retirement from his playing career, Anand started his badminton academy in 2014, based in Hyderabad with the sole idea to give all the facilities to young and upcoming players. "We have already started using the transform equipment and accessories in the academy. We have around 250 players in the academy and all are very happy with the products. A few are saying Transform equipment is better than the international brands and which are available at affordable prices."

The racquets are priced in the range of 2990/- to 11990/- and are available to purchase online on www.transformbadminton.com. Currently, due to COVID-19 pandemic, various products are not all available online, the brand will soon be available in offline and retail channels too, across India.