The Untold Story Behind Timpers: From Footwear for the Blind to a Fashion Brand Championing Inclusion

Footwear for the blind, featuring braille. This was the first major venture of Timpers, the sneaker brand created by three individuals from Alicante and developed at Lanzadera, Juan Roig's startup incubation platform in Valencia. A project born from the idea of two friends, now employing a team of people with various disabilities, advocating for inclusion.

Thus, Diego Soliveres recounted the untold story of this brand he created with Aitor and Roberto back in 2018, at the TodoAlicante forum 'Technology and Innovation'. The Alicante native recalled how an idea went viral and became a leading brand for inclusion and sustainable footwear in Spain.

Diego, who has a visual impairment, played in a football team for the blind. There, Aitor and Roberto brought models of sneakers they were testing for market launch, amazed at how "they saw them," recalls Soliveres, explaining that the blind "touched the material, analyzed it by feel, which surprised them and saw the opportunity to create a brand with visibility features for the blind," he explains.

The three partners got to work: with different textures, colours, round laces to avoid knots, and a braille code, they launched the first Timpers sneakers and soon won competitions, such as one at the University of Alicante (UA). In 2019, they quickly caught the attention of Lanzadera, where they left everything behind to move to Valencia and commit to Timpers.

And it went quite well for them. "We had a cheeky and irreverent communication style where we wanted to laugh at ourselves and that disability should not be a taboo subject," explains Soliveres, who assures they had the challenge of "changing people's mindset through coexistence and normalisation."

Diego and his colleagues turned to social media to go viral. "We made a video where my colleagues threw sneakers at me, and of course, I didn't catch a single one," Diego recalls with a laugh, also highlighting that they aimed to make "the footwear appealing to everyone."

The major problem they faced came a few years later when their warehouse in Torrent was raided, and 900 pairs of sneakers were stolen. "We were on the verge of closing," recalls the co-founder of the company, who remembers the affection from everyone after making "a video asking for help, and it was society that helped us pull through."

Now, years later, the brand has established itself as a reference in sustainable and inclusive footwear fashion, although Timpers aims to become a brand also recognized for its style and fashion. The steps are heading in the right direction, and their sneakers have been worn by Paralympic athletes or the Levante team, among other collaborations that elevate the brand from Alicante.