Skechers South Asia Pvt. Ltd. has appointed Banaja Samal as its Head Visual Merchandiser, as announced by Banaja on social media on Friday.
Banaja brings over a decade of retail visual experience to the American footwear giant, most recently from a nearly nine-year tenure at Puma Group.
At Puma, Banaja rose through the ranks from Area Visual Merchandiser covering Karnataka and Mumbai to Visual Merchandise Manager, along the way taking on the dual role of LFR (Large Format Retail) Concept Manager. The progression reflected a career built on both regional execution and high-level strategic planning.
Before joining Puma, Banaja held visual merchandising roles at Blackberrys Menswear across eastern and central India — spanning Kolkata, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh — and earlier worked as a concept designer at StudioJ, developing window displays and in-store concepts for multiple brands.
Banaja’s foundation in design traces back to a textile design internship during studies at the National Institute of Fashion Technology India, where she earned a Bachelor of Design. That early exposure to surface techniques, prints, and jacquard design, she has noted, proved instrumental in shaping her software skills and fueling her move into visual merchandising.
In her new role at Skechers South Asia, Banaja is expected to drive the brand’s in-store visual strategy across the region as the company continues expanding its footprint in the Indian market.
