The entrepreneur who created an unmistakable brand from the blazing black

Nes­tled in the heart of Bihar is Pur­nia, where the con­cept of start-ups is not the most impor­tant. But that does­n’t stop those with a pas­sion­ate heart and an unwa­ver­ing nerve. Akshay Kumar, the founder of The­BlackLover is the one who pos­sess­es both of these qual­i­ties and has braved all odds to make a name for him­self in a busi­ness often inhab­it­ed by celebri­ties or fash­ion icons. 


But as the say­ing goes: If you dream big in life, you have to fight with all your might to live it!


This is the jour­ney of one such dream­er-turned-achiev­er – Akshay Kumar, the start­up own­er of The­BlackLover, a one-stop des­ti­na­tion for every­thing black you could ever want.


The very hum­ble Akshay began his tryst by owing a brand and scal­ing it to a mag­nan­i­mous mag­ni­tude. He start­ed liv­ing his dream at a time when the pan­dem­ic had col­lapsed the world. 


What dif­fer­ence does The­BlackLover cre­ate in the fash­ion hall
The­BlackLover makes fash­ion acces­si­ble to every­one. The brand offers its cus­tomers the joy of find­ing items that reflect their personality. 


While the world loves black cloth­ing, there’s always a cliche asso­ci­at­ed with the col­or, which did­n’t stop Akshay from cre­at­ing the brand. In fact, he claims it’s one of the rea­sons he intends to stay true to his brand, not just mak­ing sales but break­ing stereotypes.


For the major­i­ty, black is unfa­vor­able and can­not be worn on good days, it is a sym­bol of dark­ness. Then why do we wear black dur­ing grad­u­a­tion to cel­e­brate edu­ca­tion? Why do judges and attor­neys wear black coats dur­ing court pro­ceed­ings? Why do author­i­ty fig­ures wear and dri­ve black? Ever thought of that – he asks??
Black may be a col­or that rep­re­sents some con­ven­tion­al thoughts, but nonethe­less it shows ele­gance. It rep­re­sents vic­to­ry, author­i­ty, pow­er and grace. It is a col­or that makes any per­son look smart and sharp regard­less of race and age. Black boosts your con­fi­dence for the job inter­view or a date night. You name an occa­sion and black only enhances your appear­ance and pres­ence there. 


From the col­or that stood the test of time to the col­or that defined the face of a brand, black has always been Akshay’s colour!


His belief in The­BlackLover res­onates through the sol­id, new account in vogue that revers­es all drains of inde­pen­dence. What start­ed as a belief that any­one with a mutu­al admi­ra­tion for black is down­right won­der­ful, he want­ed to be an accom­plice in their jour­ney to dis­cov­er and enhance it through blacks.


The back­sto­ry
Akshay hails from the city of Pur­nia on the west­ern edge of the Ganges. He was born to a hard-work­ing doc­tor and a father who worked in the gov­ern­ment sec­tor. Akshay was sent to board­ing school in DPS, Silig­uri at the age of 8. It was here that he nur­tured his inter­est in com­pet­i­tive sports, prin­ci­pal­ly crick­et for the Crick­et Asso­ci­a­tion of Ben­gal, along­side his nat­ur­al tal­ent for aca­d­e­mics. Akshay was a born achiev­er at any­thing he could get his hands on, which reflect­ed in his aca­d­e­m­ic grades through­out. How­ev­er, things turned out dif­fer­ent­ly when he came to Del­hi for his 12th board exam. Health issues com­bined with uncer­tain­ty about what lay ahead in his career took a toll not only on his aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments but also on his pas­sion for the sport. How­ev­er, Akshay was always fas­ci­nat­ed by how his heart had all the answers, instead of fol­low­ing his par­ents’ sug­ges­tion that he study engi­neer­ing, he accept­ed admis­sion to Ami­ty Uni­ver­si­ty’s BBA in Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness instead. This, he men­tions, has paid off real­ly well. While some might raise eye­brows that Ami­ty is not what it pro­pos­es to the world, for Akshay the course incor­po­rat­ed the most diverse expe­ri­ences from Sin­ga­pore and Mel­bourne and gave him the insights of his life.


In fact, he cred­its his men­tors from Ami­ty Uni­ver­si­ty for his suc­cess, par­tic­u­lar­ly Dr. Ksham­ta Chauhan and wife Aastha Gup­ta who played a huge influ­ence role in his jour­ney. Such was the impact that after grad­u­at­ing from col­lege in 2018 he jumped at an oppor­tu­ni­ty at NIIT Lim­it­ed and with­in a short space of time was pro­mot­ed to RNF tech­nolo­gies. How­ev­er, learn­ings from his alma mater kept him on his toes for some­thing of his own.


With his cor­po­rate expe­ri­ence cul­mi­nat­ing with a diverse busi­ness under­stand­ing through his stud­ies, he knew some­thing big­ger await­ed him. It was at this point that Akshay left his cocoon of a full-time job to break into the busi­ness world with his idea — TheBlackLover.


The idea came to him on the pitch when he real­ized his iden­ti­ty had become syn­ony­mous with the col­or black. Black is not a col­or of the night for Akshay, but the col­or that unites all oth­er hues bright­ens any event and soothes even the wearyest soul. Over time he real­ized that peo­ple only saw him in black clothes and acces­sories and fig­ured why not bring that love of black into my pro­fes­sion­al pas­sion — and so The­BlackLover was born.


What start­ed as just an idea, a bunch of friends who moti­vat­ed him to pur­sue the thought and pas­sion, ded­i­ca­tion and relent­less desire for the goal that led him to the suc­cess he is today.


To date, his brand has received the approval of the largest e‑commerce sites: Myn­tra, Ama­zon and Ajio Fash­ion. The­BlackLover is also going inter­na­tion­al in the com­ing months with its first store in Dubai.
Despite all the achieve­ments along the way, Akshay is still eager to learn and is pur­su­ing his MBA in Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness from Ami­ty Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness School, Noida.


Still, if you know where to stock your next all-black look for your clos­et, we need to say more!


His goal is sim­ple and achiev­able — dream big and nev­er give up on your goals!