In the first weekend of May I was visiting Stockholm and was able to take part at the trunk show held by Spanish Meermin and Austrian Saint Crispin’s.
At first the idea that these two firms - both pretty much talked about and famous at the moment - from totally different price categories and segments would do a trunk show together may sound a bit strange but on the other hand the difference is also the fact that makes it totally reasonable. These brands are both manufacturers of quality footwear but they are not really competing of the same customers with each other. Plus as they share a long family history, the idea of coming together to Sweden sounds even more natural.
For Meermin this was the first trunk show they’ve ever had but also first time for Saint Crispin’s in Sweden. Will come up a more detailed review regardin Saint Crispin’s in the near future.
Meermin is a family owned shoe company based in Mallorca. A family that has a long history being involved in the shoemaking business. The grandfather of Pepe Albaladejo (who runs Meermin today with his father and uncle) started several years ago the shoe company called Yanko (some of you may be familiar with that). from the ashes of Yanko Pepe’s father José & his brother Sandro founded Meermin and the rest of members of the Albaladejo family founded Carmina.
Even though Meermin is based in Spain the firm has manufacturing facilities in China - a fact they don’t try to hide and a fact which gives them the opportunity to offer high quality shoes with a relatively reasonable, some could say cheap prices. Even the most of the work is done in China, they still do some of the work regarding the shoes, for example all the finishing is made by themselves in the factory in Inca, Mallorca. They also use so much time as possible to visit their factory in China to keep up the quality control and training their staff so that they can maintain the standard they require.
Even though Meermin has in the past worked in the wholesale market especially in Japan, it nowdays does not have any retailers. Instead they’ve now chosen to focus on “in-house” sales. In addition to the web shop they do have their own shop in Madrid and one shop in Tokyo.
