In a cozy workshop in Raval, Catuxa Fernández and Ignacio Aldanondo They spend hours handcrafting shoes that, in addition to being beautiful and comfortable, will last for decades if the owner takes care of them. They began their journey as master shoemakers almost 12 years ago, although their relationship goes back much further, when they shared an architectural office that they eventually closed to dedicate themselves to working with their hands. In 2019, they received the National Crafts Award for Innovation.

This September, in the small town of Street, in the county of Somerset, 220 kilometers west of London, the Shoemakers Museum will open, a way to celebrate, glorify and put into historical, economic, industrial and cultural context a shoe brand that you have surely heard of and perhaps even worn. It is Clarks, a name with nostalgic resonances for a large number of Britons, but not only, who initially identify it with the first shoes they wore at school and later with a type of comfortable footwear with personality.

Vineyards, olive trees, almond trees, fruit trees, and countless artisan workshops constantly making shoes. This was the landscape that filled the town of Inca, Mallorca, some 150 years ago. In 1877, Antoni Fluxà walked the streets of this town. He was known by the nicknameThe MasterAs a child, he immersed himself in the local shoemaking tradition and had managed to make a name for himself in the profession. From his workshop, he heard about innovative shoemaking methods that were revolutionizing the industry in England, and he didn't think twice: he boarded a boat and went to experience them firsthand. Upon his return, he showed the rest of the island's members the brand-new machines that filled British workshops and were capable of working leather with great precision.