Argentine Norman Vilalta sells shoes to the whole world from Spain

The Argentine shoemaker Norman Vilalta, who has his shop-workshop in Barcelona ( Spain ) and whose clientele includes illustrious chefs, architects and members of the aristocracy, sells "shoes all over the world", since he has "clients from very various nationalities”, such as Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

Vilalta makes shoes in a purely traditional way together with a "small team" of oriental shoemakers, who have "a great passion for this type of product" and with whom they have established a "modus operandi" through which some are inspired by the others.

Vilalta's shoes cost between 450 and 1,495 euros (509 and 1,691 dollars) and their sales market "in terms of volume is the North American".

Although this craftsman, from the Patagonia region, has made a name for himself in the world of shoemaking, the profession with which he began was that of law.

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At the age of 31, Vilalta stopped working as a lawyer in Buenos Aires, “simply to be able to create shoes”, and moved to the Italian city of Florence, where he learned the art of shoemaking from master craftsmen such as Stefano Bemer.

The art of footwear

“The shoe thing is an accident. It is an object that interested me a lot, but in reality my search was to create beauty. And the shoe is a very high point in that sense”, says the renowned Argentine shoemaker.

In 2004 he looked for different places to open his custom shoe store and Barcelona appeared on his way. Since that year Vilalta has been creating his shoes from his "atelier" in this city and acknowledges that "it was a very wise decision", because the Catalan capital changed his way of understanding work and "also greatly influenced ideas and aesthetics".

Until 2014, Vilalta only produced "bespoke shoes", that is, custom-made shoes. From that year on, he also began to make "ready-to-wear shoes", that is, mass-produced shoes with patterns that are repeated depending on demand.

This latest variety of shoes has been featured on the covers of such prestigious magazines as Esquire, GQ, T Magazine and Monocle, giving the Norman Vilalta brand notoriety and cachet.

A business linked to the Brotherhood of San Marcos (which houses the shoemakers' guild of Barcelona and was founded in 1202, which is why it is considered the oldest in the world), and which constantly shows a spirit of improvement and a desire to reinvent even more plus the universe of the shoe store.

This craftsman has earned a very good reputation and international recognition, thanks to his dedication and love for the profession he professes, and he confesses that "the most important thing of all is to learn to find a good place to learn and start walking, without doubt, with a lot of passion because without it nothing worthwhile is done”.

Looking to the future, Vilalta intends to grow his business "in terms of product", wants to continue differentiating himself "in this market" and optimistically underlines that "there are still many things to create".