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On February 25, Winterbear launched India’s first-ever BTS merchandise, which is being sold at pop-up stores in Chennai. The brand teamed up with LINE FRIENDS, a global character brand, to introduce BT21 characters and other LINE FRIENDS-related products in India.
The Winterbear store is located on the ground floor of the VR Mall located in Anna Nagar West in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The flagship store of BT21 has been gaining popularity among Indian ARMYs due to the craze of the K-pop boy band BTS in the country.
BT21 are the characters that came into existence with the collaboration between the band and Line Friends in 2017. The brand introduced eight characters resonating with the personalities of the BTS members, including Tata, Chimmy, Mang, RJ, Cooky, Koya, Shooky, and Van.
BTS merchandise and BT21 pop-up store in Chennai is also accepting online orders from all over India
The first-ever BTS merchandise pop-up store in Chennai has a variety of products including BT21 characters, notebooks, tote bags, pens, stickers, tumblers, keychains, mugs, posters, and other products featuring the faces of idols from different K-pop groups including BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, and more.
Even posters of K-drama and several anime characters are available in the store. The store also has BTS' famous coffee and other ramen products. BT21 characters and other product prices are available on the official site of Winterbear.
The pop-up store is decorated with all soft BT21 character toys and other soft toys. On the day of the launch, many K-pop fans flocked over to the shop to explore the newest products. The brainchild of Winterbear, Niharika was also present at the launch event, conversing with reporters about the potential and future of the pop-up store.
The BTS merchandise shop is also accepting online orders from all over India. The character brand has also decided to launch its BT21 pop-up stores in five different states, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi. K-pop fans all over India are excited about the upcoming pop-up stores.
Meanwhile, the clothing brand’s main emphasis will be on stationary, including stickers, pens, and notebooks as these sell well in the market.
Winterbear’s 19-year-old Niharika opened up about the venture and told the Press Trust of India:
“BTS merchandise is extremely popular among K-pop fans. We will experience the Chennai Market really sells well based on their response to different films in Korea and the Korean festivals so all of this really inspired us and made us feel that Chennai would be the ideal market for us to experiment with character Brands.”
She further stated that she knew the store would be a success owing to the thriving community of K-pop fans in Chennai.
She continued:
“We knew this would work well because we have seen so many fan events happen locally so all these cultural festivals even in colleges and universities are thoroughly inspired by all of this culture and characters so we thought that Chennai would be the ideal place to study faster.”
LINE FRIENDS, the brainchild of Kang Byeong-mok of South Korea, is famous for creating appealing and featured characters that are used over the internet as stickers, games, animations, and more. They are also available in tangible forms and people can purchase the products for their entertainment.
Expectedly, fans all over India are excited and elated to hear about the latest opening of the first-ever pop-up store in India of this kind. Many have already paid a visit to the store and shared their personal experiences in the form of vlogs on their social media accounts while others await for the pop-up stores to open in their respective cities and countries.
More about the K-pop group BTS
The K-pop band consists of seven members including RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. The group is famous for its inspiring and meaningful songs.
At present, BTS has ceased all group activities as the members are gearing up for their mandatory military duties. Jin has already enlisted in the military and will soon be followed by J-hope. Other members are busy promoting their solo albums and singles and enjoying their leisure time interacting with fans through Weverse.
Indian fans are excited to visit the first-ever pop-up store that opened in Chennai and buy the latest products available there.
