Global footwear brand Skechers has appointed Banaja Samal as Head of Visual Merchandising for South Asia, as the company strengthens its regional leadership team amid continued retail expansion.
In her new role, Samal will oversee Skechers’ in-store visual merchandising strategy across South Asia, supporting the brand’s growing retail footprint and enhancing store experiences across the region.
Prior to joining Skechers, Samal held multiple roles at Puma, where she progressed through the organisation’s visual merchandising function. She began as Area Visual Merchandiser for Karnataka and Mumbai before advancing to the position of Visual Merchandise Manager.
During her tenure at Puma, she also served as Large Format Retail (LFR) Concept Manager, where she was responsible for developing store concepts and visual merchandising strategies tailored to large retail formats.
Earlier in her career, Samal worked with Blackberrys in visual merchandising roles, managing markets across eastern and central India, including Kolkata, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
She also worked as a concept designer at StudioJ, where she developed window displays and in-store visual concepts for multiple brands.
Samal holds a Bachelor of Design from National Institute of Fashion Technology, where she gained early exposure to textile and surface design through an internship focused on prints and jacquard techniques.
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