Stafford Garments underlines commitment to sportswear

RBN, manufactured by Stafford Garments is Sri Lanka’s first performance wear brand for men and women built with the Sri Lankan athlete in mind. “The ongoing fitness revolution in Sri Lanka forms an ideal backdrop for RBN to purpose design and engineer a range of performance garments that suit the local climate and user conditions and will effectively combine fashion and performance whether for a professional athlete or beginner,” said Stafford Garments MD Shakir Hafeez.

Hafeez went on to say that RBN is the result of extensive research and development on local conditions, local athlete insights and a multitude of sporting activities that have now seen a surge in Sri Lanka. A critical step taken by the brand is to conduct a ‘sizing’ research to understand the different body types of men and women in Sri Lanka and how performance apparel can offer style and performance that is better suited to local conditions than an imported sportswear brand. 

Nipuna Yatawara of CCR, Stafford Garments MD Shakir Hafeez, RBN Director Operations Irfan Ahmed and London Marathon medallist and professional runner Lewis Chalk 

“The material composition is also carefully engineered to offer comfort and breathability with specific relevance to local climate conditions. Performance factors such as compression have also been looked in to for consumers with demanding performance needs. The product is specifically engineered for Sri Lanka while maintaining world class product development and manufacturing standards and is powered by its own moisture management and anti-bacterial platform ‘vapetech’.

As part of its commitment to promoting local sports, RBN has come forward to partner with Colombo City Runners (CCR) a community-based recreational running group which aims to promote and improve running in Colombo. CCR is a not -for-profit organisation, with voluntary participation. There is no monetary commitment from members, with participation in CCR being open to the novice, as well as the seasoned athlete. Stafford Garments have came forward to partner with CCR as the CCR clothing partner by providing them with running T shirts under their brand RBN.

RBN would be available in the following categories for men and women, namely RBN Core, which is a power compression base layer garment range for semi-professionals as well as professionals in sport, while RBN Sportech comprises a range of performance wear for gym, running, biking and training. RBN is an ‘athleisure’ casual wear range, while RBN Digital is a range of digital products for quantifying fitness.

Hafeez stressed the fact that RBN is engineered by a team of highly capable product engineers who specialise in fit and construction, as well as material and performance management, whose background in apparel product development with exposure to internationally recognised brands has led to an ideal combination of local expertise driving a world class product. RBN is owned and managed by Stafford Garment Industries, a pioneer in apparel manufacture with over 15 years’ experience in supply chain, manufacturing and distribution. Stafford adopts the most stringent quality standards and is compliant with internationally accepted quality standards. The company brings a wealth of experience in manufacturing high quality sportswear and employs highly knowledgeable people in the manufacture of technical garments.