Shoes must be comfortable and pleasant-looking! It is main motto of the Brazilian shoes manufacturer Grendene. First manufacture from Grendene was opened in 1971 (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and, surprisingly to us, they were making plastic wine bottle covers and step by step they became main shoes-manufacturer in the whole country. This happened due to the talented and far-looking founding-fathers, named Alexandre and Pedro Grendene Bartelle. Nowadays, Grendene has a lot of lines: for kids, adults, men and women. All the equipment of this company is new and qualitative. according to the designers words, they want to make Brazilian country culture popular, to show to the whole world, that is why, they are looking for inspiration on the streets, while going out, having walks in park and in nature. There are 113 people that work in Product Development department. By the way, shoes-designers in Grendene, are not just shoes-designers, they are mostly engineers, economists, lawyers, stylists, businessmen and so on. So, these shoes are a combination of different cultures and styles of life. They are a perfect mixture to your tired feet. Almost all shoes are made from the flexible PVC. Only Grendene has made a technology, which makes shoes comfortable, flexible and gorgeous. There are 5 main brands in Grendene: grendha (it is a brand for women, the are designed for active woman), melissa (for teenagers, these shoes are funny and adorable), for kids (it is a leader of sales), rider (consists of 3 lines: for men, women and kids, produces mostly sport shoes) and, of course, Ipanema Shoes.

First of all, they are for active, beautiful woman. Shoes with tropical ornament, they are the embodiment of the Brazilian beaches and rivers. The new collection 2007 is about nature caring. These shoes are called Ipanema. Gisele Bundchen. Y Ikatu Xingu. Manufacturing of these shoes has strong connection to Indian tribes in Brazil and waters of river Ipanema. The legend is very beautiful. For centuries, boys from tribe Kisedje were leaving their home at the age of 16 and live in the Men’s Houses, until they are not married. But one boy has changed the course of history, he didn’t want to live apart from his mother, so the anger of his tribe made him hide in the bottom waters of the river for 7 days. There he was learning from fishes and when he returned he has strange signs on his body, they meant gratitude, discovery and self-knowledge. Erectly these symbols can be seen on the in-sole of new Grendene shoes collection 2007.

Nowadays, they live exactly as they used to live thousands of years ago. They live in the Xingu Indian Park, in large settlements and Men’s Houses are main and most important parts of the village. The tribe tries to attract attention of the society because their lives are threatened by deforestation, it has doubles in recent 10 years.

New collection from Grendene is aimed at drawing attention to this problem and moreover, giving a sum of money from these shoes sale to preserve the headwaters of the Xingu River. Gisele Bundchen is a face and representative of this collection. She has visited homes of these tribes, found out more about their lives and decided to help these people to safe their habitual place of living and this amazing natural masterpiece, as well. These shoes are lovely, comfortable and very noticeable, they will make you feet look astonishing. I already have one – and I am satisfied with them very much!