Metro Brands Limited has appointed Ariff Bham as AVP – Business Head, Sports Division, marking a significant move as the company accelerates its presence in India’s fast-expanding performance, sneaker and athleisure retail landscape

Bham moves from Reliance Brands Limited, where he served as Senior General Manager and played a role in shaping the India identity of several global lifestyle and premium brands. But his foundation goes further back — to the floor of a Diesel store, where retail was not powerpoint decks and strategy meetings, but denim, customers, and speed. That early grounding shaped a career that would see him involved in the launch and scaling of brands such as Brooks Brothers, Salvatore Ferragamo, Thomas Pink, Villeroy & Boch, Pottery Barn and West Elm across India.

What defines his journey is not only the brands, but the muscle memory of retail: knowing what product works in which locality, understanding the emotional and identity-driven nature of categories, and ensuring that numbers and culture move together.

This background now meets Metro Brands at a pivotal moment.

Metro Brands’ Expanding Retail Ecosystem

With a network of over 950 stores across more than 200 cities (as of Q2 FY26) and a market capitalization in the ₹300–340 billion range, Metro Brands has transitioned from being a family-founded footwear house to becoming one of India’s most scaled and strategically diversified retail organizations.

Its portfolio spans its own brands like Metro, Mochi and Walkway, along with long-term strategic partnerships and exclusive retail formats for global names including Crocs, Clarks, FitFlop, Skechers and Fila.

In the past year, Metro Brands also introduced the Foot Locker concept to India, in partnership with Nykaa Fashion — signaling its entry into the culture-led sneaker economy.

This preparation, both structural and cultural, has created the right runway for the next phase: performance and movement-led retail.

The MetroActiv Chapter

The company recently unveiled MetroActiv, a multi-brand athletic retail destination that brings together Nike, adidas, Puma, ASICS, Skechers, New Balance, FILA and New Era under one highly curated, experience-first environment.

MetroActiv is positioned not as a store format alone, but as an invitation: to move, to train, to walk, to step into lifestyle-athletic expression. The roll-out begins with Indore, Jodhpur and Dehradun, alongside the launch of the e-commerce platform www.metroactiv.com.

As Metro Brands CEO Nissan Joseph described it during the unveiling, MetroActiv is intended to be “the beginning of a movement to get India active.”

Where Ariff Bham Fits into the Momentum

The sports category in India today is not defined only by performance needs. It is cultural, aspirational, identity-driven. It lives in college corridors, co-working spaces, music festivals, marathons, walking tracks and weekend markets. To scale in this space requires someone who can read culture, shape product, build teams, and roll out retail quickly — but intelligently.

This is where Bham’s career experience aligns with Metro’s ambition. His work across lifestyle, premium and international formats gives him familiarity with balancing global brand DNA and local relevance — a key ingredient in the sports and athleisure sector.

His mandate now will be to build an ecosystem: differentiated assortments, store experiences that feel local yet elevated, and city-by-city communities that gather around movement and style. As he puts it, the goal is to build a performance retail environment where global energy meets Indian scale.

A Market Rising at the Right Time

India’s sports, sneaker and athleisure consumption curve is steepening — driven by fitness culture, workplace athleisure adoption, and youth identity shaped by streetwear and sneaker aesthetics. Metro Brands, with its large-format footprint, capital discipline, partner ecosystem and operational maturity, is strategically positioned to operate at scale in this rising market.

With Ariff Bham now leading the Sports Division, Metro Brands signals that it is not simply entering the segment — it intends to shape it