American sneaker brand Converse opened its largest domestic flagship store in India on June 19, 2026, at the large commercial complex Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru, South India. It's operated by Bhaane Group, which runs Converse's franchise in India. The store's highlight is that it marks the first introduction in India of Converse By You (CBY), the brand's globally available customization service.
Rather than picking a finished shoe off the shelf, a store where visitors add their own design by hand has arrived in a major Indian city. Why did the sneaker customization experience begin "now" in India? And what implications can Japanese companies considering entry into India's apparel, footwear, and experiential retail sectors draw from this single store? Let's look at each in turn.
The new store is located on the ground floor (Unit G-11) of Phoenix Mall of Asia. Converse positions it as having "the largest shop floor area in India," stocking new product lines alongside staples such as the Chuck Taylor All Star and Chuck 70. However, the character of the shop floor differs from a store that simply displays merchandise. Converse explains that its aim is to design it as a "cultural space" bringing together skateboarding, art, music, design, and youth culture.
Symbolic of this are two art pieces installed inside the store. One is "Play for Peace" by artist Ansh Kumar, an interactive installation stacking LED-embedded skateboards combined with hand-bent iron figures. The other is a large mural by Bengaluru-based Benson Diengdoh, themed around local landmarks and street culture. It's clear that the very flow of the shopping path has been remade into a "see, touch, and photograph" experience.
Making its first landing in India this time, Converse By You is a customization platform that lets visitors tailor a pair of Converse shoes to their own specifications. It combines curated design elements, limited patches, and locally inspired artwork to turn a pair of shoes into "their own." It's a mechanism that replaces the act of buying a ready-made product with a process of co-creation.
What matters here is that the customization function is built into the physical space of the flagship store, not treated as just an online selection tool. By deliberately launching CBY, which has already been rolled out globally, together with India's largest physical store, Converse is betting that "Indian youth will choose shoes they can add their own meaning to over ready-made ones." The shift from a place that sells products to a place where the brand and customer create something together is being tested in the city of Bengaluru.
Converse has, until now, gradually expanded its presence in India by combining e-commerce with physical stores. Its openings in Mumbai and Chennai, as well as its move into Kolkata's South City Mall, have all been through its partnership with Bhaane Group. This Bengaluru store represents the "largest in the country" milestone built on top of that accumulation.
The location also carries meaning. Bengaluru is the hub of India's IT industry, a city where a young population with high disposable income clusters. It has fertile ground for "purchases worth talking about," like customized shoes, given its high sensitivity to new products and digital experiences. As an extension of Converse expanding its store network across Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata with the same operator, Bhaane Group, choosing Bengaluru — where young, high-income consumers and mall locations come together — as the "largest in the country" location makes sense as a store-opening strategy for the brand. As India's two homegrown specialty coffee leaders expand in the same city, Converse's store design can likewise be read as premised on the same shift in consumption — from the stage of buying finished goods cheaply to the stage of paying for experience and self-expression.
Here is a list of the primary facts verified for this article. Figures not explicitly stated in any source, such as floor area, prices, or total store count, are deliberately left out.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Store | Converse flagship store (India's largest retail floor area) |
| Location | Phoenix Mall of Asia, ground floor, Unit G-11 (Bengaluru) |
| Opening date | June 19, 2026 |
| Operating partner | Bhaane Group (runs Converse's franchise in India) |
| New service | First introduction of Converse By You (customization) in India |
| Core lineup | Chuck Taylor All Star / Chuck 70 and others |
| In-store art | 'Play for Peace' (Ansh Kumar) / Mural (Benson Diengdoh) |
*Prices, floor area, and the number of stores nationwide are not listed because they could not be confirmed across multiple sources. Monetary figures requiring yen conversion have also not been disclosed this time (reference rate: 1 rupee ≈ ¥1.7).
Commissioning two local artists for in-store work is likely to draw a favorable local response. Both Ansh Kumar's LED piece "Play for Peace" and Benson Diengdoh's mural incorporate Bengaluru's street culture, creating an impression of "a store made for this city" despite being a foreign brand. The space itself, being one people want to share on social media, functions as a device that creates a reason to visit without spending on advertising.
At the same time, whether the custom experience translates into actual purchases and repeat visits — rather than ending as mere buzz — remains to be seen. There is also a cautious view that India's footwear market still has a thick layer of price-sensitive consumers, and that spending on experiential value remains confined to a segment of the urban population. Converse's bet hinges on whether Bengaluru's young population makes up that "segment" in sufficient thickness.
For Japanese apparel, sneaker, and experiential-retail companies considering entry into India, there are three practical takeaways to draw from this Converse store.
The Bengaluru store puts design as a cultural space ahead of product display. Japanese companies don't need to aim for an opening of the same scale right away, but the idea of treating the first store not as "a place to generate sales" but as "a place to build brand awareness and get shared on social media" can be transplanted. As with UNIQLO's entry into Pune and Bengaluru, an approach that first highlights experiential value at a mall where young urban consumers gather is worth considering.
The core of Converse By You lies in letting customers choose locally inspired artwork and patches. This reflects a design philosophy not of "selling the Japanese product as-is" but of "leaving room for Indian customers to add their own meaning." For Japanese apparel and general goods too, preparing customization elements — such as embroidery, personalization, or a choice of regional motifs — tailored to local sensibilities can differentiate a product from a uniform imported good.
Converse has consistently expanded its store network across Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru through the same partner, Bhaane Group. It's a structure that consolidates successive openings across multiple cities under one trusted local operating partner. Because business customs and distribution differ by state in India, a partner structure where operational standardization pays off as the number of cities grows becomes a strength. Japanese companies also need a perspective that looks, early on, for an operating partner who can be entrusted with multiple stores, rather than a one-off agency contract.
In India, As major retailers continue opening stores in large numbers, the mall infrastructure that serves as the receiving vessel keeps improving. The more that vessel is in place, the more foreign brands enter a stage where the difference comes not from where they open but from "what experience the store offers." If Converse's custom store delivers results, it's conceivable that sports and street brands in the same youth-culture space will follow with customization- and art-linked stores of their own. Conversely, if it struggles, that becomes a data point suggesting experiential retail is still too early for India. This single Bengaluru store stands as that test case.
You can tailor a pair of Converse shoes to your own specifications by combining curated design elements, limited patches, and locally inspired artwork. Rather than choosing a finished product, it's a co-creation service where visitors add their own design. Pricing has not been disclosed in the sources for this article.
It's on the ground floor (Unit G-11) of Phoenix Mall of Asia, a large commercial complex in Bengaluru. It opened on June 19, 2026, and is a flagship store that Converse positions as having "the largest retail floor area in India."
Design the flagship store not as "a place for sales" but as "advertising that conveys the brand experience and spreads on social media," while leaving room for customization and co-creation tailored to local sensibilities. Alongside this, identifying early on a local operating partner who can be entrusted with openings across multiple cities is a precondition for expanding the channel.
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