Pan-India, 19th June 2026: Opened in partnership with Bhaane Group, the Bengaluru flagship marks Converse’s largest retail footprint in India and introduces Converse By You (CBY) for the first time in India. CBY is the brand’s global customisation platform centred around personalisation, self-expression and co-creation. And to truly embody these values, the flagship opens with Play for Peace, a monumental skateboard installation by artist Ansh Kumar, built to be experienced, not just observed.
Located at Phoenix Mall of Asia, the flagship has been conceived as more than a retail destination. It is a cultural space rooted in Bengaluru’s evolving intersection of skate, art, music, design, and youth expression. This is not a standard store opening. Converse is making a statement about what it believes the brand-consumer relationship should be: that the space, and everything in it, belongs to the people who use it.
In the new store’s atrium is Play for Peace, a tower of stacked skateboards embedded with pulsing LEDs, a living, responsive installation shaped by movement and participation. Alongside the tower sits a hand-bent steel figure with a pinwheel head: blow into it, and light radiates outward from the base, tracing morse code that spells PLAY and PEACE. Hand-painted deck artworks extend this conversation across Converse skateboard forms. The work is not finished until someone becomes a part of it.
Ansh Kumar’s practice is built on a single conviction: art lives through contact, not contemplation. Working across sculpture, ceramics, public installation and interactive light, his work has been shown at Miami Art Week, Ars Electronica New York, the Goldstück Light Festival in Germany, Sā Biennale in Ladakh and the India Art Fair, where he was a commissioned artist for the Young Collectors Programme. He has received the Kohler Design Award, the Kyoorius Award and the ArtsHelp Grant for climate-sensitive art. Converse did not ask Ansh to embody its values, but rather he is an artist who had been living them all along.
The walls of the flagship store carry a mural by Bengaluru’s own Benson Diengdoh, whose multidisciplinary practice spans street art, dance and customisation, conceived as an ode to the city and the brand. Bringing together references to Vidhan Soudha, Bengaluru Palace and UB City alongside Chuck Taylor, basketball and skateboarding, the mural also features KR Market’s rainbow umbrellas, a boombox, a breakdancer and a disco ball, rendering Bengaluru as it actually is: a city where different cultures have always shared the same wall.
At the heart of the store is Converse By You, a platform that allows consumers to personalise Converse silhouettes through curated design elements, limited-edition patches and locally inspired artwork, transforming each pair into an extension of individual identity. The flagship store brings together Converse’s iconic silhouettes like the Chuck Taylor All Star and Chuck 70, alongside newer expressions of the brand and a dedicated focus on customisation, interaction and immersive retail storytelling.
From Play for Peace in the atrium to the hand-customised pair you walk out with, the Bengaluru store is built around a single idea: that what you make here is yours. Converse’s Bengaluru store in India is not a showcase. It is an invitation to express your bold, individual self.
Store Location: Ground Floor, Unit no. G-11, Phoenix Mall of Asia, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560092
Link: https://www.converse.in/store
About Converse
Converse is an iconic lifestyle brand with more than 115 years of heritage, born in sport and adopted by culture. Converse provokes and enables those independent enough not to follow to challenge convention and defy conformity. Through expressive, inventive footwear and apparel, Converse inspires all to move confidently, play fearlessly, and connect authentically. Converse is part of NIKE, Inc. and, also, distinctly itself. Follow @converse.india and visit converse.in
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About Ansh Kumar
Ansh Kumar is a Delhi and Rishikesh-based artist working across ceramics, metal sculpture, printmaking and interactive sound and light installations. His practice is built on the conviction that art lives through contact, challenging the gallery’s instruction not to touch by creating work that exists only through the participation of its audience. His exhibitions include Miami Art Week, Ars Electronica New York, Goldstück Light Festival Germany, Sā Biennale Ladakh, India Art Fair Young Collectors Programme, Jaipur Art Week and Goa Open Arts. He has received the Kohler Design Award, Kyoorius Award, ArtsHelp Grant and the AD New Wave Award. He co-founded Tiny Farm Fort, a hand-sculpted mud house built in Rishikesh with 100 volunteers from 18 countries. He has also been selected as the Forbes 30u30 Asia 2026
