After years of selling cheap copies of designer shoes and handbags, Barcelona’s street vendors have set up a co-operative and launched a line of trainers under the brand name Top Manta. “We have always been criticised and persecuted for selling copies, but now we have our own brand,” Lamine Sarr, a Top Manta spokesman, told the Guardian. The co-operative’s spectacular launch presented the Ande Dem trainers, which means “walking together” in Wolof, the language spoken by most manteros (vendors), who are mainly from Senegal. The name Top Manta comes from the blanket (manta) vendors lay their wares on. By creating jobs manufacturing and marketing shoes, Top Manta has succeeded in getting 120 manteros legal residency and has found jobs for 25 of its members.

Source: The Guardian June 09, 2021 06:00 UTC