We made the
March Tee
This is the longest and most involved project I’ve ever been a part of. Here’s a short story of how I co-founded March, and how we made it the best t-shirt brand in India.
⭐️ Co-founder
Creative Direction
Product Design
Experience
Interaction
Branding
Packaging
Advertising
Photography
Timeline
2015-20
Revenue
0 → ₹40m
Fans
100k ↑
Repeat customers
60% ↑
Sold out
Constantly
Backstage
In 2015, Ashish, Sukh and I (the Studio March team) were designing apps and websites for some pretty neat companies. We also wanted to build a product of our own that anyone could use and love, but weren’t sure what. Food delivery service? Better credit card? Reliable mobile network?
A hundred different ideas came to us, sitting around a tiny table in our basic tees. Wait... basic tees?! We love those, there aren’t any good options, let’s make one!
Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite so quick and clean. But that’s basically how we decided to make the March Tee and became founders overnight.
We were clueless about fashion, manufacturing, even tees. All we knew was good design and telling a compelling story. Turns out that’s what was missing from the experience, along with an actually well-made tee. So we jumped right into making things.
A year went by flying all over the country talking to people, learning, prototyping the tee, packaging and shop. It took a while to wrap our heads around yarns, fabrics, materials, and how it all works together.
Shipping good stuff since 2016
The first March Tee was high quality, zero frills and with no visible branding. The shop was minimal. We talked about our cotton fabric that was just the right weight, strong but invisible stitching, the fit and all the small details. You could have it in any colour, as long as it was grey, blue or black. It was our uniform.
We joked that we were softwear developers now haha.
It’s just like an app, right?
We thought about making a product like any other design problem, by focusing on the experience and shifting decision-making from customers to ourselves.
The website was slowly improved in many tiny ways that added up. Every line of code was written by hand, keeping it light and fast. Customers saw only our single best tee, and picked their colour and size. We made the best damn t-shirt store in the country without losing our soul.
More, more, more, but better
The shop was constantly sold out, and people wanted more. We made more colours, more kinds of tees, and even a lint roller to keep them fuzz-free. Each product was designed over months to have a distinctly March feel. Tasteful, minimal, delightful & well-built.
The full March experience
The feeling of buying a March Tee extended beyond the website. We wanted people to be just as excited when they received their package, and to leave them happy if they needed support.
It was all rolled into one continuous satisfying experience—the product, packaging, custom note, service, everything.
Having fun & getting the word out
We also made a ton of seasonal cards, playful ads, emails and a free pencil that went out with every order.
The pencil was almost an afterthought, something nice for people to keep with them when their tee was in the wash. We had no idea how popular it would become. Someone even placed an order for just a box of pencils, no tee.
Obsessing over the little (big) details
We added subtle features wherever we could—and they made a huge difference. At one point I learned to code ZPL (what a nightmare) and manually programmed one of those cheap thermal printers to spit out custom March shipping labels.
They’re designed to fit the side of our specially sized box, so that couriers can quickly scan hundreds of bar codes in a stack. The top of the label is human-readable, showing just the customer's address and phone number. As a nice bonus, it also acts like a security tape wrapping across the box.
Talking about our process
We were invited to a handful of podcasts to chat about how we built our brand and product. If you’re interested to know the thought that went into our design decisions, have a listen.
