Metro Brands has appointed Ariff Bham as AVP – Business Head, Sports Division, strengthening its move into India’s booming sports and athleisure market. With the launch of MetroActiv and a growing multi-brand portfolio, the company aims to expand its performance-first retail ecosystem and build community-driven movement culture across India.
Metro Brands Limited is pushing deeper into India’s fast-expanding sports and athleisure economy, and its latest leadership appointment signals just how ambitious that shift is becoming. The company has named Ariff Bham as AVP – Business Head, Sports Division, strengthening its ability to shape, curate and scale an entirely new category at a time when Indian consumers are embracing performance and active lifestyle products at unprecedented speed. For Metro Brands, long known as one of India’s largest footwear specialty retailers, the move reflects a transformation in progress — one that stretches beyond shoes and into the culture, community and identity that define contemporary urban movement.
Bham joins the company at a moment when the sports and athleisure market in India is not merely growing but accelerating. With more than a decade of experience building and managing international brands across luxury, lifestyle and premium retail, he brings a rare blend of retail fundamentals and global brand sensibility. His own journey, which began at Diesel on the shopfloor, grounds him in the realities of customer behaviour, store operations and daily retail discipline. Over the years, he has led launches and business operations for brands such as Brooks Brothers, Salvatore Ferragamo, Thomas Pink, Villeroy & Boch, Pottery Barn and West Elm, giving him a panoramic perspective on product storytelling, merchandising strategy, and P&L management. It is a skillset that fits neatly into Metro Brands’ next phase of evolution.
For a company of Metro Brands’ scale, that evolution is happening on an already strong base. As of June 30, 2025, the retailer reported 928 stores across 206 cities, edging closer to the symbolic 1,000-store milestone as new rollouts continue through FY26. The company’s portfolio spans multiple price segments and consumer groups, anchored by its well-known in-house brands Metro, Mochi and Walkway, and strengthened by partnerships with global players including Crocs, FitFlop, Clarks, Skechers and Fila. The recent arrival of Foot Locker in India — introduced in partnership with Nykaa Fashion — marked a particularly important moment, signalling the company’s intent to participate in the global sneaker culture movement rather than remain confined to traditional footwear retail.
But it is the launch of MetroActiv that most clearly illustrates where Metro Brands is headed. Conceived as a multi-brand athletic footwear and sportswear destination, MetroActiv is designed for today’s Indian consumer who increasingly views movement not just as fitness but as a lifestyle. From runners to everyday commuters, the category now defines how people dress, express themselves and navigate urban life. MetroActiv gathers global performance names — Nike, adidas, Puma, ASICS, Skechers, New Balance, FILA, and New Era — under one experiential space, blending product discovery with guided selling and community-driven engagement. It is the kind of environment where consumers do not just buy; they participate.
MetroActiv’s upcoming openings in Indore, Jodhpur and Dehradun, paired with its dedicated e-commerce platform, position the brand for omnichannel scale from the start. The strategy is rooted in localized assortment planning, ensuring that each location reflects the unique sports preferences, climate and lifestyle patterns of its market. Metro Brands’ CEO Nissan Joseph describes MetroActiv as a “movement to get India active,” underscoring the belief that sportswear retail today is about more than product — it is about shaping habits, building culture and offering a sense of community through running clubs, training programmes, sneaker meets and other shared experiences.
Metro Brands’ financial strength reinforces its ability to execute this plan. The company remains one of India’s most valuable publicly listed retail groups, with a market capitalization hovering in the ₹300–340 billion range through late 2025. Its steady store productivity, strong gross margins and disciplined approach to expansion provide a self-funding base that becomes especially important as MetroActiv grows across Tier 1–3 markets. In a segment where experiential retail must be matched with operational precision, those fundamentals offer a meaningful advantage.
This is where Ariff Bham’s role becomes central. His mandate cuts across brand curation, store economics, consumer insights and community building — the core pillars that define modern sports retail. One of his challenges will be aligning global performance brands with the movement culture emerging uniquely in India. While the country’s appetite for international sports labels has grown consistently, the way Indian consumers use, wear and perceive these products varies significantly across geographies and demographic groups. Understanding how to balance global authenticity with local relevance will shape the long-term success of the category.
Store economics will be another key driver. Sports and athleisure retail relies heavily on productivity-per-square-foot, disciplined rollout planning and controlled inventory cycles. As MetroActiv scales rapidly, Bham will have to ensure that new stores meet the financial benchmarks that Metro Brands has historically maintained, even as the format introduces new experiential elements and community touchpoints. His experience with international brands — where retail precision and unit economics are non-negotiable — is likely to anchor this expansion with the necessary rigour.
Community engagement represents the next frontier. Across major global markets, sports retail has been fuelled by belonging — runners who meet for early morning sessions, fitness enthusiasts who train collectively, and sneaker communities that come together through shared expression and street culture. Building this sense of identity around MetroActiv could define its differentiation in an increasingly crowded market. As India’s cities become younger, faster and more health-conscious, the opportunity to embed movement into lifestyle is larger than ever.
Underlying all of this is the cultural shift that has occurred in the past decade. Sportswear has transitioned from a purely functional category to a lifestyle statement. It now signals aspiration, comfort, individuality and even work-from-anywhere flexibility. For a retailer like Metro Brands, whose legacy sits in footwear but whose future lies in holistic lifestyle positioning, this shift creates a unique opening. With a near-1,000-store network, a strong roster of global brand partners, and the ability to execute multi-format retail at scale, the company is well placed to shape how Indians experience the sports and athleisure category in the coming years.
Bham’s appointment embodies that intent. It brings operational muscle to a vision that blends retail innovation with cultural momentum. His task will not simply be to run a division; it will be to translate Metro Brands’ ambition into a nationwide ecosystem — one store, one community and one consumer at a time. The company’s message is clear: it does not just want to sell sports products, it wants to help build India’s movement culture. And with MetroActiv set to expand across physical and digital touchpoints, the transformation is only beginning.
