Flying Machine is sold everywhere in India as the first home-grown denim brand, launched in 1980. Its timeline says it, its annual report says it, the trade press repeats it.
The trade marks register carries a Flying Machine application from February 1980, filed from Arvind Industrial Estate in Ahmedabad, with a 1987 assignment deed on the same file. This audit sets out what that record and the company’s own documents say.
Flying Machine belongs to Arvind Fashions Limited, which says so by name in its 2020 rights-issue document. On 6 September 2026 we read 225 listings across three channels: 221 sat below MRP, 46.1% below in aggregate, a deeper markdown than either brand the same company sells here under licence. The 1980 trade mark application on the register was filed from Arvind Industrial Estate, Ahmedabad.
Snapshot
- Founded
- 1980 by the company’s own account; a Flying Machine trade mark application dated 11 February 1980 is on the register
- Listed parent
- Arvind Fashions Limited, CIN L52399GJ2016PLC085595
- Holds the trade marks
- Arvind Youth Brands Private Limited, since an order of 6 March 2021
- Seller and importer of record
- Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited
- Stores
- 142 outlets, 100 cities (FY2024-25 report)
- Prices
- MRPs ₹899 to ₹3,686; average charged ₹1,242
- Checked
- 6 September 2026
How it started, and what is on the record
Arvind Limited’s history page files the brand under 1980: “Arvind launched ‘Flying Machine,’ India’s first denim apparel brand.” The FY2024-25 annual report repeats it on page 20 — “India’s first homegrown denim brand… launched in the country in 1980”. The accounts we read trace back to the company’s own materials.
A dated 1980 document is on the register. A commercial mirror of the trade marks register carries application 358404, the words “Flying Machine” in class 25, applied for on 11 February 1980. The applicant of record is The Quest Apparel Mfg. Co, of Arvind Industrial Estate, Lalbahadur Shastri Marg, Ahmedabad 380025 — an estate bearing the Arvind name, in the pincode Arvind Youth Brands gives on its later marks. An assignment deed dated 9 March 1987 is on that file.
- 11 Feb 1980Application 358404, The Quest Apparel Mfg. Co — registered, valid to 11 Feb 1987
- 9 Mar 1987An assignment deed on that file; no assignee named
- 1 May 2007The first-use date claimed on the later marks
- 2 Jul 2009Five class-25 applications in Arvind Limited’s name
The register mirror showed 30 of 54 records for these words; the rest were not read.
Two more dates come from the company itself. Its timeline records a denim plant in 1987: under 1987, “Arvind commissioned India’s very first denim manufacturing plant in Ahmedabad.” And the FY2025-26 integrated annual report describes “a 40-year legacy as India’s homegrown denim brand”.
Who owns Flying Machine
This part is settled, and unusually well. Arvind Fashions Limited’s Letter of Offer for its 2020 rights issue separates its four power brands in one sentence.
“U.S. Polo Assn.”, “Arrow” and “Tommy Hilfiger” are our licensed brands operating under licensing agreements, while Flying Machine is our owned/ self-created brand.
Several names on an Indian menswear floor sound foreign, and they reached the shop by different routes. This is the plain case: an Indian company’s own mark, with no foreign proprietor and no foreign address on any record of it we read. Two stablemates are the other case — Arrow and U.S. Polo Assn. are sold here under licence.
Three Arvind companies appear in the record. Arvind Fashions Limited is the listed parent. Arvind Youth Brands Private Limited holds every Flying Machine mark the register returns in an Arvind name, brought on record in 2021 after Arvind Lifestyle Brands in 2017, and three Bangalore courts describe it as the company that makes and sells garments under the brand. Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited is the seller and importer of record on the listings. The name on the label and the name on the mark are not the same company.
What Flying Machine costs in India
We read 225 listings on 6 September 2026 — 96 on the brand’s own shop, 69 on Tata CLiQ, 60 on Myntra — with no sale event running. Across all of them, ₹5,18,575 of MRP was charged out at ₹2,79,517: 46.1% below MRP in aggregate, with four listings at MRP.
| Channel | Listings read | Discount to MRP |
|---|---|---|
| Myntra | 60 | 54.1% |
| The brand’s own shop | 96 | 43.9% |
| Tata CLiQ | 69 | 42.4% |
| All three | 225 | 46.1% |
On jeans alone the order holds — Myntra 53.9% below MRP across 40 listings, its own shop 42.9% across 48, Tata CLiQ 39.4% across 43 — and which channel is cheapest differs from brand to brand, so this ranking is Flying Machine’s own. Its own shop also discounts by a flat rate rather than by product: all 24 men’s jeans and all 24 men’s shirts at exactly 46% below MRP, every listing rather than a median, against 0% to 57% on Tata CLiQ’s jeans. The jean below carried a buy-one-get-one offer on MRP on top of that.
- MRP on the tag
- ₹2,599
- Charged, brand’s own shop
- ₹1,403
- Gap
- 46% below MRP
- Checked on
- 6 September 2026
Flying Machine is the Indian-owned, self-created, denim-led one, and on the day it was discounted most of the three brands its parent sells here: 46.1%, against Arrow’s 43.1% across 87 listings and U.S. Polo Assn.’s 27.8% across 224. The samples differ in mix, so these are three readings side by side rather than a controlled test.
Nor is it a law of Indian retail. On the same day Westside sold at MRP: ten marketplace listings at no discount, eleven of its own pages with selling price equal to MRP, and 267 catalogue records with no struck-through price. Discounting levels differ by brand, and on 6 September 2026 almost every Flying Machine listing read sold below its MRP.
What the label says
Under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 — notified as G.S.R. 202(E) on 7 March 2011 — a pre-packed garment declares MRP inclusive of taxes, country of origin, and a manufacturer, packer or importer with an address. That block names who is legally answerable for the goods, not who sewed the garment.
Of the 225 listings, 205 declared India, and it splits by garment type rather than by shop. Jeans declared India on 106 of 107. Of 70 shirts, 25 declared somewhere else or more than one place — 8 Sri Lanka, 8 Bangladesh, two reading “Sri Lanka,India” and one “China,India”. On the brand’s own shop 11 of 24 shirts are imported; on Tata CLiQ, none of 26.
The declared names vary within each channel rather than between them: 40 distinct names across the 225 listings, 176 declarations naming a third-party company and 45 an Arvind entity, with the brand’s own shop alone carrying 24. The addresses cluster around Bengaluru for denim and split between Tiruppur and Ludhiana for knitwear.
One number a denim buyer would want is missing everywhere. No listing on any of the three channels publishes a fabric weight, in ounces or GSM, so two Flying Machine jeans cannot be compared on cloth weight before buying. Composition is published: 98% to 99% cotton with elastane on the rigid fits, down to 60% cotton, 26% polyester, 12% viscose and 2% elastane on the stretchiest.
Who Flying Machine is actually for
Someone buying jeans at about ₹1,400 who wants an India-declared garment with its composition printed, from a brand whose owner is stated in a filing rather than guessed at. With 142 outlets across 100 cities, you can try the fit first. The 1980 launch date and the “first” description are the company’s own account, as set out above.
Reputation and controversies
The advertising council’s published outcomes carry nothing against Flying Machine, and nothing against Arvind Fashions or Arvind Lifestyle. Across the apparel businesses of four listed Indian groups, two matters appear at all and both were Not Upheld; neither is this brand’s. The council is a self-regulatory body rather than a statutory regulator, and an empty file here says more about a category that makes few measurable claims than about any label in it.
Three decided court matters name the brand, and all three went the brand company’s way: Bangalore district court decrees against retailers who had not paid for stock, of ₹65,143 on 1 October 2024, ₹30,495 on 20 June 2025 and ₹2,14,226 on 8 July 2025, each with interest at 6% a year and the court in the third refusing the 18% claimed. None concerns product quality, advertising or the mark. Their value is corroborative: three courts describe Arvind Youth Brands Private Limited as the company selling garments under this name.
Buying it in India
Turn the pack over
MRP inclusive of taxes, country of origin, and a manufacturer, packer or importer with an address. That line names an Indian contract maker, or Arvind Lifestyle Brands as importer.
Treat 46% as the shelf, not the offer
On 6 September 2026 the brand’s own shop ran exactly 46% below MRP on every men’s jean and shirt. A price far under that is worth asking about.
Read the origin on the shirt
Jeans declared India on 106 of 107 listings. More than a third of shirts declared Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, or two countries in one field.
Do not wait for a fabric weight
No listing publishes ounces or GSM. Judge the denim by the printed composition; stretch fits carry up to 40% non-cotton.
Common questions
Is Flying Machine an Indian brand?
Yes. It belongs to Arvind Fashions Limited, listed in India, whose 2020 rights-issue document separates it by name from the three brands it sells here under licence. The marks stand with Arvind Youth Brands Private Limited, a subsidiary of that parent.
Is it really India’s first home-grown denim brand?
That is the company’s own description, in its timeline and its FY2024-25 annual report, and the trade press repeats it. The register carries a 1980 Flying Machine application filed from Arvind Industrial Estate, Ahmedabad, with a 1987 assignment deed on file.
Where are Flying Machine clothes made?
The declaration names who is answerable for the goods, not who stitched them. Of 225 listings read on 6 September 2026, 205 declared India — jeans on 106 of 107, shirts far less consistently.
Why is Flying Machine always below MRP?
On 6 September 2026, 221 of 225 listings were, with no sale event running, and the brand’s own shop sat at a flat 46% below MRP on every men’s jean and shirt. It is not universal — Westside sold at MRP on every listing we checked the same day.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Arvind Fashions Limited, Letter of Offer, 2020 — ownership
- Arvind Limited, Our Story, 6 September 2026 — 1980 and 1987
- Arvind Fashions Limited, Annual Report FY2024-25 — the 1980 wording, 142 outlets
- Arvind Fashions Limited, Integrated Annual Report FY2025-26 — the 40-year wording
- Register mirror, application 358404 — the 1980 filing
- Register mirror, application 1835539 — the proprietor chain
- Register mirror, search for the words — 30 of 54 records
- Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2013 — citing G.S.R. 202(E)
- Flying Machine online shop, 96 listings, 6 September 2026
- Tata CLiQ, 69 listings, 6 September 2026
- Myntra, 60 listings, 6 September 2026
- Bangalore district court decree in favour of Arvind Youth Brands, 1 October 2024
- Bangalore district court decree in favour of Arvind Youth Brands, 20 June 2025
- Bangalore district court decree in favour of Arvind Youth Brands, 8 July 2025
- Images Business of Fashion, 17 August 2023 — the trade-press 1980 claim
On what a buyer can act on, this is a good Indian jean. Ownership is stated in a filed document rather than inferred, 106 of 107 jeans listings declare India, composition is printed throughout, and about ₹1,400 is fair money for the cloth.
Two things are worth knowing before you pay. The founding story is the company’s own: its reports give 1980 and a 40-year legacy, and the 1980 trade mark record sits on the register with a 1987 assignment on file. And the tag is a starting point, with 221 of 225 listings read below MRP.
Buy the jean at the discounted shelf price, not the tag, and judge it on the composition printed on the listing.
