Soludos Founder Nick Brown Heads to Spain to Meet the Craftspeople Making the Region’s Famous Espadrilles Inline
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown1/7“Beautiful Alicante on the southeastern Mediterranean coast of Spain. The ceramic roofs and beautiful chapels seem to stretch on forever. Alicante is famous for its heritage of footwear manufacturing and for having the finest paella in Spain.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown2/7“First we visited the factory that makes our espadrille outsoles. The word espadrille derives from the Spanish word esparto, a type of grass. Jute, a kind of grass, is dried and woven into string, which is braided and then spun into the comfortable soles of espadrilles. The factory we work with has been passed down through four generations and produces espadrilles for some of the world’s finest designers.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown3/7“Balls of jute string are pulled and woven by machines into braids, which are then hand-spun into the basic shape of the soles.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown4/7“Towers of golden espadrille soles are stored in every size before our leather uppers are hand-stitched on.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown5/7“Fresh out of the oven! Our custom Soludos espadrille soles are each pressed and heated in metal molds for five minutes so that the rubber sole fuses to the braids of jute.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown6/7“The finished product is our new leather huarache. Strands of leather are woven like baskets for an update to the classic heritage style. The uppers are then hand-stitched to each espadrille outsole.”
Photo: Courtesy of Nick Brown7/7“On the way to Alicante, we stopped in Madrid for 24 hours, spending the day meandering the streets, sampling the local jamón and paella, and checking out the small art galleries along Calle del Doctor Fourquet.”
