Portugal's shoe industry is more competitive than Spain or Italy, with skilled craftspeople who build expertise daily. The speaker, with 55 years in the business, explains how matching workers to the right stations and investing in their skill development creates higher-value production.
What do you think is different about making shoes in Portugal than anywhere else in the world? I think one of the main aspects of Portugal over the past 30, 40 years has been how competitive we were. We're still quite competitive if you want to compare us to Spain even, or, or Italy. We're a bit more competitive. The business is changing, I think, and, and we're evolving into making more complicated shoes with more added value in a sense. The people that work in the sample room, you saw them, whether it's design, pattern making, cutting, stitching, these guys, they're like super passionate about what they do. They're challenged every day, you know, they're learning new things. On the production side of things, I think all of them appreciate the fact that we're bringing, you know, new and helping them develop their skills on a daily. In that case, it is humans. So the thing is, you're dealing with, uh, we're 55 years, so you're dealing with tons of different personalities, making sure that person is at the right station because that's their skill set. Identify skill set. One day you find out, oh my God, he's so good at that. Have the right skill set in the right place within the organization.
