Author: Chris Maguire

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.

Passi swapped the UK for Dubai and launched a brand specialist called Sumwon Studios and joined forces with the Chinese clothing giant Shein.

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.