Indian shooting accessories manufacturer bears COVID-19 brunt

The novel coronavirus outbreak, that left the global sporting calendar disrupted, has also taken a toll on the fortunes of an Indian company that exports shooting accessories to over 70 countries.

Amid the lockdown, while the shooters have figured a way to resume action, the Capapie Sports Equipments company, has nose-dived  with its “visibility diminishing” due to the stalling of all competitions by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even as Nilesh Rane, a former national-level rifle shooter and founder of Capapie Sports Equipments, has no positives to look forward to at present but he prefers to remain optimistic.

Rane feels confident that the company, which has over the years built a solid reputation of manufacturing world-class jackets, trousers, shoes, and hand gloves for rifle shooters, will wriggle out of it as things get better with time.

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“Revenue has also taken a hit,” he told PTI when asked about his business that was flourishing till the novel coronavirus intervened by taking the form of a pandemic.

With the world under a lockdown and shipments restricted, he is not able to export his produce to the countries whose top shooters normally rely on him.

“There is a total stop on everything. Of course production and export has taken a hit due to the bad situation in Europe. We are the leading manufacturers, a leading brand in the world now when it comes to jacket, trouser, gloves and shoes, top shooters take from us,” he said.

All tournaments, big and small, have been either postponed or cancelled in recent times due to the fast-spreading novel coronavirus that has so far claimed over 1,60,000 lives while infecting more than 20 lakh people across the world.

The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has recently cancelled all its scheduled tournaments this year, including the World Cups. However, shooters took part in an online competition recently. The first-of-its-kind championship was held earlier this week.

Rane believes the virtual event gave them some visibility, with some of the shooters wearing the jackets and trousers manufactured by Capapie.

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“That online event was something positive, a break from negativity in these times. This online event is a good initiative and we really feel good when shooters wear our dresses. Shooting is a niche sport, and not like, say, cricket, so it more difficult when we are talking about visibility,” he said.

Rane, who is also sponsoring a couple of refugee shooters preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, feels the postponement of the Games by a year may help them provide the shooters with even better material.

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“See the shooters are relaxed after the postponement of Olympics. But they also want to compete every now and then, so that’s why this was a good initiative as they got a feel of competition. They will look at it as a positive sign. Coming back to the Olympics, the postponement will give us more time to cater to the shooters requirements,” he said.

“We have given them customised shoes, trousers and jackets. That’s what top shooters want, just like a Sachin Tendulkar used a customised bat. So we are looking at it also in a positive way. We have gone international some years ago and we try to give them the best as per their requirements,” he added.

Besides, a majority of top rifle shooters across the world, he gives his accessories to the likes of top Indian rifle shooters such as Divyansh Singh Panwar, Anjum Moudgil, Elavenil Valarivan, Mehuli Ghosh and Deepak Kumar among others.

(With inputs from agencies)