Zapateros. ­That's pretty much how the folks at Pedro García define themselves. Shoemakers, in the most traditional sense of the term...and the most avant-garde sense of the term. At the helm now is the third generation of a family devoted to footwear. The saga, however, dates back to grandpa García, the first Pedro, who founded the business in the hectic year of 1925, opening a children's shoes workshop in Elda, Alicante. T­ree years later it became a factory for men's footwear.

In 1954, the second Pedro García, his son, took the reins of the business. Under his direction, the firm expanded its activities and became specialized in women's footwear. A new, 4,000-m2 factory opened in 1965, and by 1968 the brand was being exported to the world's premiere markets, appearing in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and being sold at Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman and Russell & Bromley. 

Today, the third Pedro and his sister, Mila, embody the latest generation. Pedro studied at Ars Sutoria in Milan and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In 1992, his father founded a new company with his children as business associates and since then he has been responsible for the brand's artistic direction, along with his partner, Dale Dubovich. Mila manages the company, with supervision coming from her father, who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Since then, they have successfully expanded out to all of the world's markets, even becoming a benchmark in the luxury segment of the demanding American market.

­Trough it all, the brand's design philosophy has been a catalyst. Pedro and Dale have taken the García design to the realm of experimental luxury. A pair of Pedro Garcías constitutes a powerful mélange explosive that takes contrasting materials and makes them coalesce, associating the unsociable, creating hybrid models from opposing concepts, always looking one step beyond. Hence, research is a key element for Pedro García. And all paths are valid, whether based on excess or minimalism. Just as long as the end product is irrefutably impeccable, extreme high-end.