2023-05-09 09:19:40
In 2010 the outlook was not very rosy for the thousands of young people who were beginning to enter the labor market. In that year, the unemployment rate for young people under the age of 25 reached 40%, according to the newspaper THE COUNTRY. Many left Spain to work abroad. That dichotomy of staying or going abroad in search of opportunities also crossed the minds of Claudia Pérez Polo and Pablo Izquierdo López. She is an industrial designer and he is an architect. They opted to remain in Spain and entered into a project related to the world of footwear, an initiative that materialized in the firm Naguisa, a brand that more than ten years after its birth triumphs inside and outside our borders. “It all started with a handmade shoe course that we did in Barcelona. I come from a shoemaking tradition, my father worked in the footwear sector, he had shoe stores, he was a shopkeeper, ”she explains to S Fashion Pérez Polo, co-founder of Naguisa, about the origin of the firm. “My father at that time told us that he could not find a different offer of espadrilles in the market, he had always seen the same thing for many years,” she recalls. And encouraged by the idea, they launched, at just 27 years old, to create their own project linked to footwear, specifically artisan footwear that was originally worn by the humblest peasants and which has ended up becoming a summer success that transcends our borders. .
In the words of Claudia, “the espadrille is a very traditional product of our country, very handmade. We began to see how it was made, we visited workshops and it won us over. We made a small sampler with a test in the national market, it worked and the following year we went to an international fair”. It was 2012, a key year in the history of the brand. Until then the two founders had combined other works with Naguisa, but after passing through an international fair held in Paris, where they received commissions from Japan and different orders from Europe, they verified that the project was serious. “With espadrilles we found our market niche and we started as a summer brand, we only designed these footwear.”
From Barcelona to Japan and South Korea
The name of the brand invites us to travel more than 10,400 kilometers away from Barcelona, where the firm is based, to reach Japan. “Naguisa is a Japanese name that refers to the trace that the sea foam leaves on the shore. We knew the term because in Barcelona, the fairground was designed by Toyo Ito, a Japanese architect. He devised some benches for that fair that have a wave shape, and that bench is called Naguisa. He made us fall in love with the meaning of the word, ”he explains. The symbolism of the sea fits perfectly with the most Mediterranean footwear in the wardrobe, a design that, according to Pérez Polo, has gained value in recent years. “The espadrille is a product that has greatly appreciated in the last decade. When we started we put quality skins on the lining, you can’t see it but it’s where the contact with the foot is so it can breathe. We also designed the box and in the factories they told us, ‘you are not going to sell that at that price because nobody is going to buy it from you’. Before, there was a tendency to make it as cheap as possible and the espadrille was conceived as a very affordable product because in the past grandmothers made it at home. In the last ten years the espadrille has been revalued in the national market, before it was valued abroad but now here too”.
Proof of Naguisa’s good reception was soon reflected in its catalogue, which began to diversify in 2014, when its now emblematic braided sandals were launched on the market, a “manual and artisan” design also linked to the region’s shoemaking tradition.
The foreign country that has most connected with Naguisa’s proposals is South Korea. As they explain, “we started working with them six years ago and today it is one of our main markets.” So much so, that they have an Instagram account exclusively dedicated to his Korean audience. Claudia believes that success has to do with the conception that the Asian country has of the artisanal product. “In addition, our footwear is comfortable, they are very functional designs. It is for use on a day-to-day basis and the peculiarity that it is handmade attracts them a lot, the theme of the natural is highly valued”.
Overcoming obstacles in the footwear sector
Exports account for 70% of the firm’s turnover, with Italy and the United States as other relevant markets. “As a single market, the most consolidated is the national one,” they point out. And they affirm that their strength continues in the physical point of sale, with their designs distributed in multi-brand stores and in specialized shoe stores: “Between 60 and 70% are for sale in physical points, physical distribution and between 30 and 40 digital” . In these ten years they have opened a physical store, located in Ciutadella de Menorca – “a somewhat personal project due to the relationship we have with the island” – and they have expanded the team to a total of 13 people. But perhaps most significantly, they are no longer limited to summer collections. To stimulate the growth of the company, for the last three years they have been betting on winter lines, with slippers made in Portugal. The manufacture of the rest of the footwear is distributed in different parts of our geography, such as La Rioja, where the hand-sewn espadrilles are made, or Alicante (Elda and Elche) for the braided sandals.
The firm’s creativity, reflected in the design of its models, but also in the concept of the brand and its positioning as an independent label, is one of Naguisa’s distinctive features. The company transmits its philosophy not only through its espadrilles and sandals, but also with the Spotify lists that it shares with its community or with the news published on the magazine of the firm, where interviews, tutorials or parts of the manufacturing process of their designs are revealed. If founding a firm in Spain is already a challenge in itself, recent years have brought additional obstacles. Naguisa survived the pandemic, quite an achievement if we take into account the debacle suffered by the textile sector, with the destruction of 35,000 jobs and the closure of 17,000 stores, according to data from Acotex, and now he is weathering the storm that is looms over the shoe industry due to rising prices. “Inflation has affected us a lot, for the last two years. Now is when the final consumer is seeing an impact, but for two years the skins and dyes have risen. And the increase in electricity has affected all the leather tanneries, there have been factories that have had to close because they could not sustain themselves”. And to this is added the added problem of working well in advance: “We started designing a year and a half before the collection goes on the market and with the fluctuation of prices the materials have a cost that changes every six months.” Step by step, Naguisa continues walking and, facing the new season, defies the gloomy scenarios with vibrant shots of color, present in her collection of embroidered espadrilles or her vitamin-toned sandals, with a nod to trends but without sacrificing her particular features. aesthetic codes.
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