PUMA came to Virat Kohli in 2025 with a renewal offer worth Rs 300 crore. That number — spread over a fresh multi-year deal — would have made it the largest sports endorsement contract in Indian history. Kohli said no. He invested Rs 40 crore of his own money into Agilitas Sports, a two-year-old Bengaluru startup, for a 1.94% equity stake via CCPS. The equity value of that stake, if Agilitas hits the trajectory its founders are aiming for, could eventually dwarf the endorsement money. But that's not why he made the choice. He made it because Rs 300 crore would have kept him as someone else's brand ambassador — and he had spent eight years being exactly that.
The deal, announced December 2025, is the most interesting business story in Indian sports since MS Dhoni's Seven Districts investment and the most structurally significant move in Indian celebrity sportswear since Hrithik Roshan launched HRX on Myntra in 2013. Here's why it matters beyond the headline number.
The PUMA Chapter: Eight Years, Rs 110 Crore, and a Partnership That Defined Indian Sportswear
When PUMA signed Kohli in 2017, it was the first endorsement deal for an Indian sportsperson to cross Rs 100 crore. The 8-year arrangement covered the One8 lifestyle sub-brand as well as performance cricket product, and it made PUMA synonymous with India's most visible athlete at the peak of his career. For PUMA India, it was the anchor piece in a decade-long surge — from roughly Rs 200 crore in annual revenue in the late 2010s to a Rs 3,900 crore operation by the time the partnership ended.
The One8 products under PUMA weren't bad. The Basket Classic in 2018 was a sharp lifestyle shoe. The annual cricket spike iterations sold well across Amazon and Myntra. But the creative ownership lived at PUMA's headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Kohli's design input went through a European brand committee before it reached product. That's the nature of an endorsement deal — and he understood it. But by 2024, the calculus had shifted. He was retiring from Test cricket, the endorsement pipeline was changing, and there was an opportunity to own something rather than represent something.
PUMA's farewell statement in April 2025 was gracious — "we will continue to invest in the next generation of athletes" — but a Rs 300 crore offer declined is a significant statement, not a negotiation that didn't close.
Agilitas Sports: The Bengaluru Startup Built to Win Indian Sportswear
Agilitas Sports was founded in 2023 in Bengaluru by Abhishek Ganguly — PUMA India's managing director for 22 years. The company raised Rs 600 crore in its first year from Convergent Finance and Nexus Venture Partners. It holds Lotto's licensing rights for India, South Asia, and Australia. And it owns Mochiko Shoes — which Agilitas describes as India's largest sports footwear manufacturer. Mochiko also manufactures product for Adidas and Skechers in India. That factory ownership is the moat.
Manufacturing ownership is rare for Indian celebrity and lifestyle brands. Most operate on licensing: contract the factory, outsource quality control, collect the brand fee. Agilitas inverts the model. One8 doesn't license manufacturing — it controls it. That means higher margins, faster product iteration, and direct authority over materials and quality standards. When the Seam XVIII Signature launches at Rs 9,230 with Test-ball texture and cricket stitching, that design decision went from brief to product without a European brand committee in the middle.
Abhishek Ganguly: The Man Who Built PUMA India and Is Now Running the Opposing Team
The most important figure in this story is not Kohli. It's Abhishek Ganguly. He spent 22 years at PUMA India and served as managing director as the brand grew from Rs 20 crore to Rs 3,900 crore. He architected the Kohli partnership, the Anushka Sharma campaigns, the gully cricket activations, and the digital strategy that made PUMA India the cultural force it became. When he left PUMA in 2023 to found Agilitas, he took the institutional knowledge of exactly how to build an Indian sportswear brand at scale — and the capital to do it again.
When Ganguly acquired One8 for Agilitas and brought Kohli in as co-founder, it completed a loop. The man who made PUMA India dominant was now building One8 as PUMA's direct competitor in the Indian cricket and lifestyle segment. Ganguly knows every line of PUMA India's playbook because he wrote most of it. Now he's running the opposing team. That competitive dynamic is not subtle, and it is not accidental.
What This Means for Indian Sneakerheads and Buyers
One8's products are now made with different intentions than the PUMA-era licensing model. The Seam XVIII Signature at Rs 9,230, the Cover Drive spikes at Rs 13,999, the Seam Pavilion at Rs 6,999 — these are made in India at a factory Agilitas owns, by a team with direct creative authority. The quality ceiling for One8 product is structurally higher than it was under PUMA, and the product storytelling will sharpen as the brand finds its rhythm.
The June 21 premiere at Yashobhoomi Delhi — India's first fandom-led access commerce drop, sell-out on District by Zomato, Karan Aujla performing — was the proof-of-concept. The infrastructure (Rs 600 crore capital, Mochiko manufacturing, Ganguly as CEO) is the foundation. Whether Kohli's equity position translates to a category-leading brand in three years is the question the Indian sportswear market will answer in real time.
Track new One8 product at one8.com. For the full event story, read our One8 Global Premiere recap. For how PUMA India responded to Kohli's exit, our breakdown of PUMA's next-gen ambassador strategy covers what the brand is building toward. The Adidas selection at SNKRS CART benchmarks the premium Indian sportswear tier One8 is now entering.
