The customer of Vialis shoe stores is a creative, very critical and demanding woman; she can be 20 years old but also over 65, because she is someone who appreciates design, noble materials and likes things made with care and craftsmanship. This is how Jaime Serramalera, a shoemaker trained as such on the island of Menorca, who settled in Barcelona and 25 years ago opened his first Vialis store in Placeta de Montcada, in the Born neighborhood, defines his clientele.
Serramalera recalls that "it all started with a collection of four sandals. I was in charge of everything, from the design of the shoes to the boxes they came in; I opened a store-showroom and I remember selling even the samples."
His hallmark: the combination of wood and leather to provide comfort to those who wear his shoes. Hence, also, the chosen name. Vialis refers to Greek mythology, as it was the name given to the god Zeus for his quality of protecting walkers.
Jaime Serramalera has been adding originality and elegance to the comfort of his shoes for 25 years. Some of them, authentic icons, such as the Dai Dai clogs that were born in 1996 and continue to be a brand bestseller; or the Lola model, one of the super sales. "The special union created between wood and leather is a defining feature of our brand, as emblematic collections like the Garret also show," he states.
In all models, "wood meets the functional requirements for any shoe, such as stability (thanks, for example, to a rubber sole adhered to the wood)." With an adequate weight, wood provides a very specific aesthetic that "we, particularly, love," explains Serramalera.
A shoemaker by trade, he highlights that in the mid and late 90s of the last century, Vialis Shoes created a trend with the Dai Dai clog model that "25 years later is still in our collections and has a community of loyal customers." The loyalty is such that, according to a grosso modo calculation, it places sales of the Dai Dai model at about 7,000 pairs since its creation and "the figure is three times higher if we refer to Garret shoes, since it is a design that is manufactured in many more models."
Currently, after the economic crisis of the coronavirus pandemic that has forced the closure of some establishments, Vialis has ten of its own stores in Bilbao, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona ---where there are six---. In addition, it has a presence in more than 150 multi-brand stores in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, the United States, Japan, and Israel. Online sales currently account for 30.63% of total retail sales and 9.22% of total turnover, which for this year is expected to reach 6.1 million euros. So far in 2021, 45% of sales correspond to exports.
Online sales account for more than 9% of annual turnover, of about six million eurosAll Vialis Shoes collections are made in a factory in Sax, Alicante, where five people work, manually crafting, shoe by shoe, Jaime Serramalera's collections. The production is artisanal with a multitude of processes, attending to the original designs, with various finishes. Serramalera works hand in hand with designers to make their ideas a reality: building lasts, correcting, cutting leathers, skiving, sewing, nailing, gluing, molding, and so on.The leathers, the wooden soles, the variety of nailed or stitched constructions, the selection of unique colors, and the variety define the work of this shoemaker who remains "passionate" about his craft.Specifically, their leathers are treated using vegetable tanning, in the old-fashioned way, without using chrome, but rather leaves and small branches. And they do not use artificial pigments, which allows the different nuances in tones and textures to be appreciated and prevents the leather finish from having a uniform and impersonal appearance.