By any metric the reinvention of Nitin Passi has been little short of startling.
The business epitaphs appeared to have been written when the online brand Missguided that he founded, collapsed into administration in 2022.
Passi famously launched Manchester-headquartered Missguided in 2009 and grew it to become one of the UK’s biggest online fashion players before it publicly crashed and burned.
However, any thoughts that Passi would go the same way as Missguided, have proved wide of the mark.
The image-conscious Passi made a sensible decision to leave the goldfish bowl that is the UK and headed to Dubai in 2023.
Missguided founder says ‘failure is not fatal’ after making his return
He launched a brand specialist called Sumwon Studios and joined forces with the Chinese clothing giant Shein.
In a delicious twist of fate, Shein went on to acquire the intellectual property and trademarks of Missguided from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which had bought the online retailer out of administration.
Fast forward two years and the 43-year-old appears to have reinvented himself
Passi, who judging by his social media posts appears to have recovered some of his swagger since relocating to Dubai, has revealed the scale of Sumwon Studios’ success.
According to his LinkedIn posts, 2025’s highlights included:
- Growth up 200 per cent;
- Doubling of profits;
- Sold 25 million units; and
- Acquiring BALR, the premium brand born from football culture.
It’s hard to verify the figures because Sumwon Studios is primarily based in Dubai but the company has embarked on a major recruitment campaign.
Its approach is based on harnessing the power of AI and data to eliminate overproduction.
Working out in the sun: Nitin Passi (Taken from @nitinpassi instagram)
Given what happened at Missguided, there’s no danger of Passi resting on his laurels.
Writing on LinkedIn last week he said: “Good is the enemy of great. Last year, our business grew over 200 per cent. Profit doubled.
“On paper, it was a great year.
“But that’s not how I look at it.
“Because in a world this competitive, good is just the starting point.
“Markets move faster. Consumers change faster. Talent gets sharper. Competition never switches off.
“The moment you get comfortable being good, you’re already behind.
“I’ve always been wired this way.
“Whether it’s business, fitness, or anything I care about, I’m rarely satisfied.
“I’m always asking what could have been done better.
“At scale, that mindset matters even more. The real risk isn’t failure. It’s comfort.
“The strongest businesses don’t confuse progress with arrival.
“They treat good as the baseline and keep raising the bar.”
A week earlier he write that his startup had crossed $0.5bn in revenue in its first two years and was just days away from opening ‘the coolest HQ’ in Dubai.
“That scale didn’t come from slowing down or over-planning,” he wrote. “It came from execution.”
The wording all sounds a lot like Missguided, whose Manchester offices were once described as the ‘coolest offices in the world’.
Passi has also borrowed the Jeff Bezos mantra at Amazon by insisting ‘every new day is day one’ at Sumwon Studios.
There’s no doubt that Passi’s latest venture has enjoyed meteoric growth but he’ll be hoping for a better ending than that of Missguided.
The fast-fashion retailer was launched in 2009 from a back room in Manchester with a mission to be ‘affordable, fast and at the forefront of fashion’
He grew it to have almost five million customers in over 120 countries, generating revenues in £290m.
Recognising the power of social media, the company grew its global fan base to more than 12 million people and hired Nicole Scherzinger to model their clothes.
In 2015, the company was looking at 40 per cent growth with a stated ambition of becoming a £1bn global fashion giant.
The company even allowed Channel 4’s cameras in for the series ‘Inside Missguided: Made in Manchester’.
The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at £133m and he drove a £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador.
And then it all went wrong. A series of supply chain issues, rising costs, and growing competition, combined to push Missguided into administration and Passi resigned as CEO.
At one point, angry suppliers descended on the company’s HQ and demanded overdue payments be made, forcing the police to be called.
Passi was the obvious fall guy for Missguided’s fall from grace – which makes his reinvention all the more impressive.
- Nitin Passi was approached for comment.