The producer has been making sneakers by hand from begin to end for 50 years: “Few factories can say the identical” His father, Francesc Mates, created a enterprise 75 years in the past through which they stand out for the particular care in the whole manufacturing course of a manoA success of the Mates model, which he attributes to his persistence: “I do not know what I’ve finished, however I’ve saved preventing with out stopping”
Myrna Mates has been making every kind of footwear for 50 years. A conventional work in disuse and with no presence of ladies, aside from the Catalan grasp shoemaker, who runs a household workshop within the Barcelona neighborhood of Sants: “Everything we make is totally handmade. I’m certain that there is no such thing as a one in Spain to do the identical”.
His father Francesc was a pioneer in 1947 when he manufactured his personal sneakers on the age of 16 to compete in numerous athletic occasions. Since then, the Mates title has turn into recognized to the world as a sports activities shoe model, and Myrna has continued the enterprise from a workshop the place she produces sneakers from begin to end.
“I’ve no competitors. All the opposite manufacturers are industrialized. The sneakers enter, on the one hand, and after an hour they arrive out made. It’s completely completely different. We lower them by hand,” explains the producer, who considers that “there are few factories that know learn how to make a replica from scratch till it’s completed”.
shoe workshopmates
If relevant, purchase the skins, take the measurements and make the shoe sample. Subsequently, he shapes, sews, assembles and hooks the only. A laborious and cautious course of that has nothing to do with the work sample of the large manufacturers. “They put the piece in and it is virtually finished, in my case it is all finished by hand.”
An artisan technique through which the time to fabricate it doesn’t fall beneath 24 hours. “I can take as much as a month if it is acceptable for a particular custom-made shoe, however relying on the case, I’ll have two days to do it. In this case, it has nothing to do with these from the Mates retailer”, clarifies Myrna, who can produce as much as 30 pairs at a time, a “quicker” follow as a result of simultaneity of the product.
What started as a enterprise for big golf equipment and shops in Spain targeted on sports activities, primarily athletics and handball, took a leap ahead with the arrival of the Barcelona Marathon. A foot race, through which his father was one of many founders and which modified the imaginative and prescient of a minority sport. “He was a visionary. 75 years in the past you had been working by way of the streets they usually noticed you as a freak.”
Variety of gildings
“Since nobody ran in Spain, foot issues started to come up. Little by little we had been making personalised sneakers as a result of there have been individuals who had them broad, others with bunions or any peculiarity. This has led us to have the ability to make any sort of mannequin,” Myrna acknowledges. .
From an individual with a deformed foot to new child sneakers, motorbike or climbing boots. “I can do something as a result of I’ve the means and the schools, however Math is the primary factor in my workshop.”
Now, Myrna is 64 years outdated and for her it’s an “monumental” satisfaction to comply with the legacy of her father, a benchmark within the manufacture of custom-made and high-performance footwear. “When she died, everybody checked out me unusually. I went to the suppliers and factories they usually addressed my husband. It shocked them {that a} girl made sneakers. However, now there are cobblers, though up to now there was not one.”
Some companies stay open, however few individuals need to be taught the commerce
This status led him to decorate top-level athletes, resembling Jordi Llopart, European champion within the 50-kilometre stroll with Mates created from kangaroo leather-based that nobody else makes, or First Division soccer referees.
Now, this shoe has turn into a cult merchandise in Japan: “We have been within the Asian commerce for 10 years and it has turn into a vital model. They are bought in the perfect shops.”
A top quality manufacturing and positioned within the coronary heart of Barcelona. “Before, there have been many shoe factories. We weren’t the one ones, however they’ve been closing down and solely I stay. Some companies stay open, however few individuals need to be taught the commerce,” he laments.
Myrna making a Mates shoe
“Making a shoe has its work, it’s not simple in any respect. Everything may be discovered, however basically it’s extra handy to sit down in entrance of the display, they like consolation,” provides Myrna, who acknowledges the difficulties of holding the enterprise entering into a future. “I do not understand how lengthy we’ll maintain on. We’re finding out the way it does not finish with me. I’d be very sorry.”
For her, persistence has been the important thing to success. “Things are going properly for us, we can not complain. I do not know what I’ve finished, however I’ve continued to battle with out stopping,” she says of a market through which there are increasingly more imitations and there’s no dedication to naturalness.
“In the market it’s tough to seek out 100% leather-based sneakers, though they make good imitations. I take advantage of actual cowhide. They are made with nice care and supplies which are studied to supply consolation and breathability. When individuals attempt them, they quality-price is a present”, he concludes.
An instance of neighborhood commerce for Ada Colau
For the mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, Mates is a “good instance of a fantastic neighborhood enterprise”, the “solely” enterprise with a workshop that sells sneakers “100% made within the Catalan capital”. In this line, she has recalled for Christmas procuring that “there is no such thing as a platform on the web that may provide the personalised remedy of native companies.”
A message that comes weeks after the beginning of the processing of the well-known ‘Amazon price’ to tax giant dwelling supply firms, which invoice multiple million euros per 12 months for deliveries to last locations indicated by shoppers within the capital. catalan
“Neighborhood shops generate high quality workplaces, pay taxes, and provides life to neighborhoods. Platforms like Amazon, alternatively, create precariousness, pollute the streets, and desert neighborhoods, making unfair competitors,” he defined on his social networks. .
Myrna acknowledges that the mayor’s phrases have flattered her “fairly a bit” after receiving her go to within the workshop. “I made her a brand new shoe when she got here and she or he was delighted,” she recollects.