Bata India sent four friends to Goa to prove its sneaker credentials to Gen Z

Launch the Sneaker Studio concept, offering up to 300 sneaker styles from 9 brands under one roof, to Gen Z and Millennial shoppers who didn't think of Bata first.

A film conceptualised by Contract India (creative Sagar Mahabaleshwar, director Suraj Wanvari, production Happy Monk) follows four friends surprised by the range in a Sneaker Studio, then driving, skating, dancing and splashing to Goa; the concept spans 300+ stores, bata.in, marketplaces and 2,000+ Bata retail stores, with brands including Power, North Star, Weinbrenner, Bata Red Label, Bata 3D, Hush Puppies, Naturalizer and Bzees.

The campaign put retail scale behind the repositioning — 300 Sneaker Studio concept stores and 2,000+ retail doors carrying the range; no campaign metrics are given in the source.

In February 2023, Bata India unveiled its Sneaker Studio concept through a youthful campaign conceptualised by Contract India. The offer was concrete: 300 sneaker styles from 9 brands under one roof, spanning Power, North Star, Weinbrenner, Bata, Bata Red Label, Bata 3D, Hush Puppies, Naturalizer and Bzees.

The film follows four friends on the path of spontaneous life. It opens in a Sneaker Studio, where they are surprised by the range and spoilt for choice, then follows their adventures — jumping in a lake, skateboarding, dancing at a beach party on the way to a concert in Goa — with Bata sneakers as the one constant companion.

MD and CEO Gunjan Shah framed the strategy: youth had been gravitating to sneakers for style and comfort, so Bata combined that love with 'their passion for spontaneity and unbridled experiences', now available across more than 300 Sneaker Studio stores, bata.in, marketplaces and 2,000+ Bata retail stores pan-India. Contract India CCO Sagar Mahabaleshwar described the insight as the age when 'the rush/spontaneity is all that matters'.

The film sells the occasion, not the shoe: every stunt — lake jump, skate line, beach dance — is a moment where sneakers are the enabler.

Backing a youth-coded campaign with hard retail numbers (300 styles, 9 brands, 300+ concept stores, 2,000+ doors) answers the youth scepticism a heritage brand faces.

The Goa road-trip narrative converts a store concept into a story the target audience already stars in.

For Bata India, whose history is in formal and family footwear, the campaign is a deliberate identity expansion rather than a product line ad.

A heritage brand entering a youth category should sell the feeling the product enables (spontaneity) and prove the assortment — never argue about its own age.

The Sneaker Studio concept continued across Bata India's fleet with the campaign launching in February 2023; the source records no follow-up results.