BLR Friends Make Heavyweight T-Shirts For Indian Men That Last For Years & Don't Cling At Awkward Places On The Body - Clock ₹10 Lakh/Month

If you’re a man and a t-shirt wearer, you know the drill:

Buy a tee in January, wear it through March, see its colour fade by April, use it at home, and then finally, get another one in May.

Rahul Singh and Nikhil Kumar, the founders of Subtle, think this needs to stop:

Fast fashion that convinces you to buy stuff every third week, a wardrobe filled with clothes you have no idea how to sort, and of course, t-shirts that don't really align with your body.

That’s why they have built premium, heavyweight t-shirts. The ones that will last you for years. The ones that represent more substance, less show.

“Wash any t-shirt 15-20 times, and you’ll see it lose its shape. That’s because it is probably made using 180-200 GSM fabrics, which are relatively lightweight. We are solving this very problem with elevated t-shirts that won’t fail you, despite multiple washes and wears,” Rahul Singh, co-founder of Subtle, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in January 2025, Subtle is a Bengaluru-based men’s apparel brand that offers premium, heavyweight t-shirts and clothes that are breathable, textured, and last longer. Currently, it has a monthly revenue of approximately Rs 10 lakh.

THE BACKGROUND

With family roots in Bundelkhand, Rahul Singh was born in Surat. After his parents moved to South India, he grew up in Bengaluru.

After school, he secured admission for a B.Tech degree at the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.

“Nikhil and I have grown up together, gone to the same school, and ultimately the same college. We are great friends. Both of us shared an entrepreneurial inclination since the beginning. For instance, when we were in college, we started a book rental business,” Rahul Singh tells Startup Pedia.

“Engineering books are expensive. So we developed a model where a student could pick up a textbook on rent and return it at the end of the semester. It worked out great for us for the next two years,” Nikhil Kumar adds.

After graduating from college in 2016, Rahul and Nikhil had clarity on one thing: they didn’t want to take up jobs.

The friends got a seed grant from the college and started experimenting with a bunch of stuff.

In 2017, they started Winkl, a proximity marketing solution for brands. Eventually, they pivoted to becoming a blogging platform for creators. Numerous fashion and food influencers started joining. By the end of 2019, bigger brands like Flipkart approached the young founders to collaborate on influencer marketing campaigns.

“We ultimately revamped Winkl into an influencer marketing platform where brands could automate their campaigns and run and manage them smoothly. We were also on the verge of receiving major funding, but it fell through in 2020,” entrepreneur Rahul Singh mentions.

“We had scaled to Rs 4-5 crore in monthly revenue and were profitable as well. But by early 2022, another shift happened: brands wanted agencies to handle their influencer marketing campaigns. We, on the other hand, didn’t have the aspiration to turn into an agency. It is a people-first business, and you need to service clients 24*7. So we accepted an acquisition offer,” Nikhil Kumar tells Startup Pedia.

After the acquisition, Nikhil and Rahul continued working at The Good Creator Co (the revamped Winkl) and finally exited it in mid-2024.

Post that, the entrepreneur duo took a break to reflect on what they wanted with their lives next.

Over the next few months, they developed an interest in consumer brands.

“Nikhil and I zeroed in on one vision: build a house of consumer brands that speak of substance, unparalleled utility, and elevated fashion. That’s how Subtle started. On the side, I also started The Bae Shop with my wife,” startup founder Rahul Singh tells Startup Pedia.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES: BUILDING SOMETHING THAT ALIGNS FOR INDIAN MEN

With an undisclosed bootstrapped amount, Rahul Singh and Nikhil Kumar started Subtle in January 2025.

The entrepreneur duo identified some key gaps in the Indian fashion industry, especially when it came to t-shirts

1. Most t-shirts fade and lose their shape after 15 washes.

2. They are mostly made with 180-200 GSM fabrics, making them lightweight and more prone to cling and stretch at awkward places on the body.

“For instance, you will see a lot of t-shirts in the market riding up the hip area once you wear them a couple of times. The result? An unflattering look,” startup founder Nikhil Kumar says.

3. Lightweight fabrics are simply not suitable for the Indian male body type. Think broad shoulders and a wider pelvic structure. Thinner fabrics simply lack the weight and drape required to maintain a clean silhouette. 

4. However, the slightly heavyweight t-shirts available in the market trap heat and make the wearer feel sweaty and heavy in all the wrong ways.

Rahul Singh and Nikhil Kumar’s Subtle was born to sit at the centre of all these gaps and address them by reengineering t-shirts from the ground up.

“We didn’t want to solve these issues by making just another oversized tee. We wanted our t-shirts to be well-fitted but also look great on the Indian body type,” Nikhil adds.

The next step for the startup founders was to visit manufacturers and zero down on one that aligned with them. 

However…a challenge came up. 

Rahul and Nikhil wanted to build t-shirts with 260 GSM fabrics and experiment with the results. But no regular manufacturer across Tirupur (a South Indian city famous for its textile and garment industry) agreed to work on a custom-order basis. They were more inclined towards receiving a bulk order and delivering the quantity. 

“It was after a lot of rejections that we finally found someone who was just setting up a new manufacturing unit. They were ready to experiment with us, but hadn't done anything custom earlier. We occupied their space and began working on heavy fabrics and reengineering them,” startup founder Rahul Singh explains.

To solve the problem of heat-trapping in heavyweight fabrics, Subtle created a custom fabric using a 260 GSM, 100% combed cotton substrate. A fluted knit structure was added to form linear air channels, contributing to enhanced ventilation as well as thermal regulation. 

“So what our custom fabric does is create a controlled drape that doesn't cling to the body. It maintains a premium, clean silhouette without distortion,” Nikhil adds. 

The result of months of experimenting and reengineering heavy fabrics from the ground up? T-shirts that look premium, don't crinkle, don't cling, don't distort, don't fade, and definitely don't lose shape even after hundreds of washes and uses. 

Subtle was officially launched in the market in June 2025. 

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SUBTLE: THOUGHTFULLY CRAFTED T-SHIRTS THAT LAST LONG…LIKE REALLY LONG

Currently, Subtle operates as a men's apparel brand offering heavy t-shirts that feel comfortable, breathable, and have the subtlety of minimalism and premium clothing. 

“An important mantra is that our t-shirts must look good on a person. They should complement their body and make them feel confident,” Rahul notes.

The men's apparel brand offers a range of perfectly crafted t-shirts that include:

• The Flow Tee

It is a polo tee, offering a classic fit, and is made with 240 GSM mercerised 100% Supima cotton.

• The Cloud Tee

This is a crew neck t-shirt, offering a relaxed fit, made with 260 GSM 100% cotton, with a 2mm fluted texture. It is heavy and breathable at the same time. 

Each t-shirt at Subtle promises to keep its colour intact, despite 70+ washes. 

Subtle is presently operating with a target audience of men aged between late twenties and early fifties.

The prices for the men's apparel brand start at Rs 2,499.

Since Day 1, startup founders Rahul Singh and Nikhil Kumar took a clear stance against discounts and freebies. 

“We follow this very strictly, to the point that even if we want a t-shirt from Subtle, we will pay the full price for it, and the amount is officially logged in, just like any other order,” Nikhil affirms. 

THE UNIT ECONOMICS

As per the founders, Subtle has an average order value of Rs 3,000. 

The broad breakdown of the unit economics is as follows:

• 20-25% of the amount goes into making the product 

• 5% is taken up by shipping and logistics 

• 25-35% goes into marketing

• 10% goes into miscellaneous expenses

• A chunk of the remaining amount also goes towards fixed costs 

“We have an EBITDA of 8-10% currently,”Nikhil Kumar mentions. 

Also Read: “We make exclusive high-street fashion you won’t find anywhere else,” say young startup founders of Farda, a brand clocking Rs 10L/month

GROWTH OF SUBTLE 

From June 2025 to August 2025, startup founders Nikhil and Rahul operated Subtle solely through word-of-mouth. 

“We were collecting as much feedback as possible. During this period, we were getting one to two orders every day from friends, family, and mutual connections in Bengaluru,” entrepreneur Rahul Singh says. 

In September, Subtle started creating content and running ads on Meta. They didn't hire any agency for external help and did everything in the digital realm themselves. Apart from that, they built a small team of freelancers.

“Since then, we have shipped 1,000+ orders across India,” Nikhil mentions. 

Revealing the order split of Subtle, the startup founders mentioned that initially 90% of their orders came via Meta ad conversions. 

Now, 20% of the orders come via organic Instagram marketing and word-of-mouth recommendations, 50% from Meta ads, and the remaining 30% are repeat customers who come back to buy more colours and styles. 

Currently, as a men's apparel brand, Subtle is clocking a monthly revenue of approximately Rs 10 lakh since November 2025. Earlier, it was a humble number of Rs 2-3 lakh.

In the near future, Rahul and Nikhil want to create garments for Indian summers and work with fabrics like linen. They are planning to add at least 6-8 more styles of t-shirts as well.

“Just like software, we want to keep updating our fabrics and release better, newer versions of them. In the second quarter of 2026, we aim to open up our own R&D lab. As for offline expansion, it is planned for after two years,” Nikhil tells Startup Pedia. 

“Our ultimate vision is to build a house of lifestyle brands, where subtlety means high-quality craftsmanship. Think well-made but not flashy. We want to be known for doing ‘heavy’ right. Maybe this will manifest into something beyond just an apparel brand,” Rahul Singh signs off.

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