Gap is an American clothing brand — jeans, T-shirts, hoodies, chinos and children’s wear — sold in India through exclusive brand stores, counters inside bigger shops and the marketplaces. On Myntra on 11 September 2026 it carried 5,045 listings and the typical price charged was ₹1,824.
The thing worth knowing before you buy is who you are buying from. Gap Inc does not run a shop in India and never has. It has licensed its name here twice, to two different Indian companies.
Gap has had two Indian franchisees and has never owned its Indian retail business. Arvind held the franchise from August 2014 until a mutual termination in September 2020; Reliance Retail Limited has held it since July 2022. Gap Inc’s own list of its 57 subsidiaries, dated 31 January 2026, names two Indian companies — a sourcing arm and an IT arm — and no retail entity at all. Of a 100-listing sounding taken on Myntra on 11 September 2026, 93 were reduced and the shelf collected 63.1% of MRP.
Who owns Gap in India
Nobody Indian owns the brand, and Gap Inc has no Indian retail subsidiary. What exists is a franchise: an American company licensing its name to an Indian retailer, which buys the stock, pays the rent and keeps the till.
- Brand owner
- Gap Inc, a widely held company listed in New York; no single holder controls it
- Indian rights held by
- Reliance Retail Limited, CIN U01100MH1999PLC120563, under a long-term franchise agreement announced 6 July 2022
- Previous Indian holder
- Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited, franchise announced 21 August 2014, terminated by mutual agreement September 2020
- Gap Inc companies in India
- Two — Gap International Sourcing (India) Private Limited, incorporated 18 March 2005, and Gap IT Services India Private Limited. Neither sells to shoppers
- Category
- Apparel — men’s, women’s, kids and baby
- Typical price charged
- ₹1,824 median across a 100-listing sounding on Myntra, against 5,045 listings on the brand facet
- Where to buy
- Reliance’s exclusive brand stores and shop-in-shops, Gap.Ajio.com, Myntra, Tata CLiQ
- Checked on
- 11 September 2026
Both arrangements are franchises, and both companies said so at the time. Gap Inc’s announcement of 21 August 2014 names “Arvind Lifestyle Brand Limited, a subsidiary of Arvind Limited” and calls the deal a franchise agreement for about 40 stores. The announcement of 6 July 2022 calls the Reliance deal a long-term franchise agreement and describes Reliance Retail Limited as “the official retailer for Gap across all channels in India”.
- Arvind Lifestyle Brands LimitedFranchise announced 21 August 2014; brand launched here in 2015
- Mutual terminationAnnounced 29 September 2020; both companies cited the pandemic
- Reliance Retail LimitedFranchise announced 6 July 2022; first standalone store 24 February 2023
The brand changed hands in India twice without ever changing owner.
The subsidiary exhibit Gap Inc files each year shows the structure. The list dated 31 January 2026 runs to 57 companies, and exactly two are Indian: Gap International Sourcing (India) Private Limited, and Gap IT Services India Private Limited. One buys, one writes software. The list filed in 2014 carried the same sourcing arm and nothing else. Across twelve years of these filings, an Indian retail subsidiary has never appeared.
That makes Gap a different shape from the other foreign names on the same high street. H&M runs its Indian shops through a company its Swedish parent owns outright, and Zara‘s Indian operator is a joint venture in which Trent’s annual report calls Inditex “the majority partner”. Gap has neither. Its franchisee, Reliance Retail Limited, also owns Reliance Trends.
Gap has bought from India far longer than it has sold here
This is the older and better half of the story. Gap International Sourcing (India) Private Limited was incorporated in Delhi on 18 March 2005 — nine years before Gap sold a garment here. It is a buying office, and a tribunal has described its work.
An order of the customs and service tax tribunal in New Delhi, dated 28 February 2014, records that the company surveys and recommends Indian vendors, checks their compliance with child labour and pollution norms, inspects export consignments and issues inspection certificates — all of it in India, for the American parent.
Gap Inc has published the names of its first-tier factories since 2016, and the current list is dated February 2026. An analysis of it by Dr Sheng Lu of the University of Delaware, published on 6 March 2025, ranks India third among Gap Inc’s apparel supplier countries after Vietnam and Indonesia, and calls India critical to the company’s woven apparel sourcing.
Gap has bought clothes from Indian factories for twenty-one years and sold clothes in India for about eight of them, through franchisees both times.
What Gap costs in India
A sounding of 100 Gap listings was taken on Myntra on 11 September 2026, against a catalogue of 5,045 on the brand facet. Ninety-three were reduced, the shelf collected 63.1% of MRP in aggregate, and the median paid was ₹1,824.
- Share of MRP actually charged
- 63.1%
- Median price charged
- ₹1,824
- Listings reduced below MRP
- 93 of 100
- Checked on
- 11 September 2026
The number that tells you most is six. Those 93 reductions, spread across 21 MRPs, resolved into just six discount rungs. That is a pricing grid rather than garment-by-garment pricing — the markdown is set at the tier and applied down the range.
Why duty is not the answer here
No garment-for-garment comparison between Gap’s Indian price and its price abroad appears here, because the same item could not be matched on both sides on one day. Converting a dollar price and calling it what the shirt ought to cost in India would be a guess. What can be read instead is where the clothes come from.
Forty Gap product records were read in full on Myntra the same day. Twenty-one declared India as the country of origin, one more declared “Vietnam,India”, and the rest named Cambodia, Vietnam or Bangladesh.
| Country of origin declared | Records, of 40 |
|---|---|
| India | 21 |
| Cambodia | 9 |
| Vietnam | 8 |
| Bangladesh | 1 |
| Vietnam, India | 1 |
A majority of the Gap goods sampled declared India as origin. Customs duty is charged on the landed value of an imported shipment, not on a price tag, and does not apply to a garment made in India, so import duty does not explain the price of those items.
Of forty Gap records read on 11 September 2026, 21 declared India as the country of origin.
Who answers for the garment
The packaged commodities rules made under the Legal Metrology Act require every pack to carry the name and address of the manufacturer, or of the importer where the goods are imported, along with the country of origin and the net quantity. That line names the company legally answerable for what you bought.
Across the forty Gap records, eight different manufacturer-or-importer strings appeared and nine showed that line blank on the listing. Reliance Retail Ltd was named on 13, four of those as “Imported by:”. Net quantity appeared on 33 of the 40.
The seller of record is a separate field. Two sellers carried all forty listings, one on 30 records and the other on 10.
For comparison, three smaller Indian labels read the same day, Andamen, Genwayne and Tanlooms, each named one company on all forty records.
What is published about Gap’s Indian business
Neither company publishes the size of the Indian business. Gap Inc’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year to 31 January 2026 does not contain the word India, and neither does the one before it. It reports franchise agreements in “about 35 countries” and roughly 1,000 franchise locations. The retail sections of Reliance Industries’ integrated annual reports for 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 do not contain the word Gap. The 2022-23 report mentions it once, in a list of new formats, with no figure attached.
The only India-level figures found come from the previous franchisee. Arvind’s exchange announcement of September 2020, as reported by Business Standard, put its Gap business at ₹182 crore of revenue for the financial year 2020 and a loss before tax of ₹34 crore. Those figures describe Arvind’s operation six years ago, not the business Reliance runs now.
Published store counts vary by source and date. Reliance Retail’s brand page says “over 100 shop-in-shops and 20 EBOs”; its store locator, read the same day, lists 43 entries; the figure given to the trade press in March 2025 was 51.
- 2015Brand launches under Arvind
- 5 Mar 201811 standalone stores, plus 17 new shop-in-shops
- 24 Feb 2023First Reliance standalone store, Infiniti Mall, Malad
- 21 Jan 202550th store; a 51st announced in Surat that March
- 11 Sep 2026Brand page says 20 exclusive stores; locator lists 43 entries
The counts come from different pages and dates.
Arvind’s press release of 5 March 2018; trade press reports; Reliance Retail’s brand page and store locator, read 11 September 2026.
The published store counts come from different pages and dates. If the shop matters to your purchase, ring the branch before you travel to it.
The claims, and what stands behind them
Gap Inc publishes a real apparatus, which is more than many clothing companies do: a Code of Vendor Conduct, a stated practice of assessing 100% of first-tier suppliers every year, a published factory list, and named cotton programmes such as Better Cotton.
Two claims get quoted most. The first is Washwell, the denim laundry programme founded in 2016, which Gap says reduces “water use in garment finishing by at least 20% compared to conventional wash methods”. The second is that 98% of the cotton Gap Inc used came from more sustainable sources.
The same report that prints both figures says: “Our Greenhouse gas emissions data received independent limited assurance. All other metrics are subject to an internal quality review.” So the 20% water reduction and the 98% cotton share are covered by Gap Inc’s internal review rather than independent assurance. The cotton programmes are real third-party schemes; the count of how much cotton passed through them is not independently checked.
Reliance Retail’s Gap page carries one line about designing products with better materials, without a standard, certification or link to the factory list or impact report.
What the record shows
The decided Indian matters on file involve Gap Inc’s own companies rather than the shops. In a transfer pricing dispute over what its Delhi sourcing arm should charge the American parent, the income tax tribunal fixed an arm’s-length mark-up of 32% on cost in May 2016, rejecting a far higher demand. The tax department took it further and lost: the Supreme Court dismissed its petition on 23 August 2019.
On the trademark side, the Delhi High Court decreed a suit brought by Gap (ITM) Inc in terms of a settlement on 24 August 2015, under which the defendant acknowledged the company’s rights in the GAP mark and accepted a ₹25 lakh damages clause if he broke the terms. A second suit was decreed on 4 March 2020 on mediated settlement terms.
No decided regulatory action, product recall or consumer commission order against the Indian operation of the brand was found, and nobody has ruled on the way the brand is sold here.
Who Gap is actually for
Gap sells plain, well-cut American basics — a straight-leg jean, a crew-neck sweatshirt, a logo tee, a chino — to a shopper who wants a familiar international name without premium prices. At a median of ₹1,824 that is a fair proposition, and children’s wear is central to the offer: two of the three shop-in-shop formats Arvind launched in 2018 were built around kids and baby.
It suits less well anyone shopping for an imported American garment: a majority of what was sampled declared India as origin, from a supply base Gap’s Delhi sourcing office has worked with since 2005. Your purchase is from an Indian retailer holding a franchise, so returns and service run through that retailer.
Anyone wanting the same price band with a clearer line of accountability has options on the same street. Zudio belongs to a listed Indian company that publishes its numbers.
Buying Gap in India
Read the seller name before you pay
The seller of record is printed on every marketplace listing. Reliance Retail, the franchisee, sells through its exclusive brand stores and Gap.Ajio.com.
Look at the country of origin, not the flag on the label
Of forty records read, 21 declared India. A Gap garment made in India is not worse for it, and no import duty applies to it.
Expect the markdown, and learn the rung
Ninety-three of a hundred listings were reduced, on six discount rungs across 21 MRPs. Full MRP is the exception, so an item at its printed price is usually worth waiting on unless your size is scarce.
Turn the pack over and find the importer
On an imported garment the manufacturer-or-importer line names the company answerable to you, and it is printed on the packaging. In a shop, read it before buying.
Common questions
Who owns Gap in India?
Nobody Indian owns the brand. Gap Inc licenses it to Reliance Retail Limited under a long-term franchise agreement announced on 6 July 2022. Gap Inc’s own subsidiary list, dated 31 January 2026, names two Indian companies — a sourcing office and an IT company — and no Indian retail entity. Arvind Lifestyle Brands Limited held the same franchise from 2014 until September 2020.
Is Gap clothing made in India?
Much of what we sampled was. Of forty Gap product records read on Myntra on 11 September 2026, 21 declared India as the country of origin, with Cambodia on 9 and Vietnam on 8. Gap Inc has also bought from Indian factories since 2005 through its Delhi sourcing company, and an analysis of its published factory list ranks India third among its apparel supplier countries.
Why is Gap discounted so much on Myntra?
A sounding of 100 listings on 11 September 2026 found 93 reduced, with the shelf collecting 63.1% of MRP. The 93 reductions resolved into only six discount rungs across 21 MRPs, which points to markdowns set by tier rather than by garment.
Did Gap leave India?
Its first franchise ended. Arvind Lifestyle Brands and Gap Inc announced a mutual termination on 29 September 2020, both citing circumstances after the pandemic. Reliance Retail announced a new franchise on 6 July 2022 and opened the first standalone store at Infiniti Mall, Malad, on 24 February 2023. No published source says how many Gap shops, if any, traded here in between.
How many Gap stores are there in India?
Published figures vary by source. Reliance Retail’s brand page says over 100 shop-in-shops and 20 exclusive brand stores; its store locator lists 43 entries; and the figure given to the trade press in March 2025 was 51. Neither Gap Inc nor Reliance publishes an India store count in its annual report.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Gap Inc, 21 August 2014 — the Arvind franchise agreement, the partner’s name and the plan for about 40 franchise-operated stores.
- Business Standard, 30 September 2020 — the mutual termination, the reason both companies gave, and the ₹182 crore revenue and ₹34 crore loss before tax for the financial year 2020.
- Gap Inc, 6 July 2022 — the long-term franchise agreement with Reliance Retail Limited and the phrase “the official retailer for Gap across all channels in India”.
- Gap Inc, subsidiary exhibit as of 31 January 2026 — 57 subsidiaries, of which the only two Indian ones are the sourcing company and the IT company.
- Gap Inc, Form 10-K for the year to 31 January 2026 — franchise agreements in about 35 countries, roughly 1,000 franchise locations, and no mention of India.
- ZaubaCorp, a mirror of the corporate register — Gap International Sourcing (India) Private Limited, incorporated 18 March 2005, Saket, New Delhi.
- Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi, 28 February 2014 — the description of what the Delhi sourcing company does for its American parent.
- Dr Sheng Lu, University of Delaware, 6 March 2025 — analysis of Gap Inc’s published factory list ranking India third among its apparel supplier countries.
- Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, Rule 6 — the requirement to declare the manufacturer or importer, the country of origin and the net quantity.
- Reliance Retail, Gap brand page, read 11 September 2026 — “over 100 shop-in-shops and 20 EBOs”, Gap.Ajio.com, and the materials claim.
- Reliance Retail, Gap store locator, read 11 September 2026 — the 43 named store entries.
- Indian Retailer, 26 March 2025 — the 51st store in Surat and the description of Reliance Retail’s place in the group.
- Business Today, 24 February 2023 — the first standalone store at Infiniti Mall, Malad, and the shop-in-shops that preceded it.
- Reliance Industries, integrated annual report 2024-25, retail section — group-level retail figures and no brand-level mention of Gap.
- Gap Inc, 2024 Impact Report — the Washwell 20% claim, the litres saved, the 98% cotton figure and its definition, and the sentence limiting independent assurance to greenhouse gas data.
- Gap Inc, supply chain working conditions — the Code of Vendor Conduct and the annual assessment of all first-tier suppliers.
- Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, ITA No.1077/Del./2016, May 2016 — the 32% cost-plus mark-up fixed for the sourcing company.
- Supreme Court of India, 23 August 2019 — dismissal of the tax department’s petition in that matter.
- Delhi High Court, 24 August 2015 — the GAP trademark suit decreed in terms of a settlement, with the ₹25 lakh damages clause.
- Delhi High Court, 4 March 2020 — a second Gap trademark suit decreed on mediated settlement terms.
Gap in India is a decent shelf at a fair price. A median of ₹1,824 with 93 of 100 listings reduced buys competent basics. A majority of what was sampled declared India as origin, and the Indian business is run by a franchisee, Reliance Retail, rather than by Gap Inc.
Less is published about the size of the Indian business: neither company’s annual report gives an India figure for Gap, and the only India-level revenue and loss figures found date from Arvind’s franchise in 2020. Gap’s two most-quoted sustainability figures, 20% less water through Washwell and 98% more sustainable cotton, are internally reviewed; its report says only greenhouse gas data is independently assured.
Buy the jeans on the discount rung and read the origin line rather than the flag on the label — 21 of the 40 Gap records sampled declared India.
