fran We grew up sneakers and fashion enthusiasts, with stores like 24 Kilates in Barcelona, who were the originators in Spain. They were the first specialized store in our country and we admire them. But in Madrid, there weren’t stores that could translate sneaker culture and streetwear as we experienced in other stores in Paris or London. We wanted to make a store like this because we thought it was very cool and we loved it.

Even 24 Kilates in Barcelona, they are very special people – they are two founders, we are two founders too. We’ve met in the past and there was mutual respect and recognition between one another. There are so many other stores that were big inspirations for us, that today are very big but they started out small – like Solebox, Sneakersnstuff and of course Patta, which for us, is the best kind of store. It’s not about the products they are selling, it’s about all they do and stand for, the community and the brand they become. And we wanted to make a store like that. To have people standing in line all night to buy a t-shirt of our brand, that was what we wanted.

fran Yes. Back then the sneaker market was composed mainly by collectors, it was a niche. Now, it has become this huge thing. In these latest releases with luxury brands and stores, this isn’t what sneaker culture it’s about, in my opinion. All these new collabs are like high fashion and I’m not a high fashion guy, I’m a street guy. And I get it, it’s all flashes, Paris fashion week, it’s nice, but where are the streets? Where are the people in the lines, people that come in to hang in the store, to drink a beer and talk about sneakers? There’s less money involved but it is so real.

The pillars of this market right now are the people from the past, and they are tired of losing in the sneakers app, and only seeing musicians and rappers making shoe collabs. They should bring the stores to these colorations again, because they know the theory and the stories. And this is the struggle we have today, we are not being valued enough. We, as a sneaker community, have to reconnect with young people, because right now they are into something else, it’s more about social media, not so much about the physical, but it’s the market evolving. So we have to adapt and retain the essence, return to the spirit of the store and evolve with the times. At the same time, try to make new customers and bring in young people who can express the culture, or who can remember what Nigra Mercato is in 10 or 20 years.

fran It’s more practical. We are the only store in this neighborhood. There are other neighborhoods like Malasaña, that would be like a Soho in Madrid, where you have plenty of sneakers stores. Not specialized stores like Nigra Mercato. Back then, if you opened a sneaker store next to another one that also sold Nikes and other brands, they would cancel your account because there were too many stores close together, selling the same shoes. So they said “if you go to another neighborhood we can open an account and send you Nikes, adidas, and etc.” We decided on this neighborhood because we think that people will come to Nigra Mercato. This is not a commercial street, it has more bars, restaurants, but not stores. We thought that if we opened a store here, people would come because we were gonna make it so cool.

fran We understand that it’s not only about the sneakers. I think that to show what kind of lifestyle we have, the books can contribute very well because we like art. We like design, gadgets and the goodies for your home. So all our products are speaking about our idea of lifestyle. This is why we have an arcade, it’s all for fun. The idea behind the store was thinking what a 14 year old me would like to have in their room: an arcade of course, plenty of sneakers and cool stuff of cool brands, and cool books. I like to think that if a little Fran came into my store, he would be like “wow! This is the coolest place in the world, they have an arcade machine and all these sneakers, I love all this shit! I want to have this in my bedroom.”

This is a stylish boutique and you can see that the design is very minimal, but also you see some elements of fun – it’s a mix. We are serious people, we like art, fashion, we are cool people but we are children too, and we like to have fun and make jokes. This is a boutique but you’re going to have fun.

The store almost didn’t happen, like by a centimeter. We are very humble people and we didn’t have that kind of money to open the store. We were depending on the banks, and the employees were very rough and we had to convince them to give us the money for the store. It was like “we want to sell sports shoes”. And they would say “oh yes, sport shoes for running”. And we “no, not for running, for just hanging around” (laughs). And they said “that’s not a thing, that’s impossible”, they wouldn’t get it. When sneakers started to flood the market here in Spain, everybody was saying “oh, this is what you were talking about”.

fran I started like every kid. I used to do athletics and we would wear sports shoes for training. Then, when they got worn out, they became the shoes for school. I would dream about the best shoes, the expensive ones, but we couldn’t afford the Nikes or New Balances. We would wear some brands like Joma, which is a local brand from Spain. I dreamt like any other child from the hood. Back then there were no sneaker stores, so we would look at the window of this very classic sports store called Deportes Moya and we would stare at the Nikes, Jordans, the Ewings. We just dreamed of having better sneakers, the more expensive ones. It became like a thing of desire “maybe one day I can have the Patrick Ewing shoes, or the Scottie Pippens, the Pennys, or the Jordans”.

I grew up, made a little bit of money and started to connect with sneakers and find my style. So this is how I started, and it’s a common story for people of my generation (laughs).

fran The story behind these two sneakers, these pairs of bespoke Air Max 1s, is that we made them for the Air Max day in 2018. We made them to get Nike attention, we wanted to make a sneaker collaboration just like any other store in the world. We wrote to them, showed them projects and it never happened. So we said “ok, we’re gonna make our own shoe, our own story with our own video, show Nike we can make a memorable shoe and people will like it, it will have local engagement and people in Europe will appreciate it.”

We made it on our own with Nike’s bespoke program. We actually made two sneakers – two Air Max 1s. One is called ‘Dama de Noche’, it’s the name of the flower of the cactus, and it only blooms one night per year. The sneaker has green and purple tones inspired by the color of the flower, but there’s a reflective layer underneath and it works as a metaphor for how you can only see the flower once. At night, when some light hits the sneaker, it lights up and then it’s gone – just like the flower, you see it one night and then it dies.

The other one is called ‘Boquerón’ which is inspired by the boquerones en vinagre (anchovy in vinegar), a classical spanish tapa specifically from Madrid. It’s inspired by the local taverns, the culture of bars and beers, and hanging out with your friends. This is a very typical scene for us, to get some cañas and tapas. For Spanish people it’s a lifestyle to hang out with friends, and all this is represented in this shoe.

This ‘Boquerón’ colorway is inspired by the oil of the boquerón, which is a raw fish. In the sneaker you can see the gray inspired by the fish, there’s a green swoosh for the oil and a purple swoosh for the garlic. It’s a very classical color scheme. It also has the OG mesh from the ’87 release which is the same as the original Air Max 1. Both sneakers have the mini swoosh because in Spain, we love the mini swoosh, it’s very important for us.

fran I have a theory. We had a sports distribution company here in Spain and in the 60s, or 70s, when Nike still wasn’t as big as it is today, they signed with Nike to distribute in Spain because it was a small market. They signed a “death contract”, it was a lifetime license, which is absolutely crazy. But they probably thought “Spain, they have Franco, they don’t buy shoes, so it’s not important”.

So time went by. In the 90s, Nike was very big and they found out they have a local distributor in Spain making so much money off them. They needed to do something but the contract was for life, so they started a legal battle.

This Spanish distribution company found a Spanish brand called Nike (Niké), like the Greek goddess of victory, the same as the real Nike. They registered the brand “Nike” so that the real Nike legally could not use their name in Spain. This is crazy. Then, they started to make clothing with Niké (laughs). People started buying these supposedly Nike apparel, but the real Nike couldn’t sell anything with their name in Spain – that’s why they started to use the mini swoosh, because it was a way to show it was the real Nike, without having to spell “Nike”. That’s why the mini swoosh is so important for Spanish people, because it means the real Nike.

Eventually in the 2000s, the company went completely bankrupt and the sons of the owners reached a deal with Nike. You can still find some old clothes with Nike written on them, that are not from Nike, but made here in Spain.

fran Because it’s our favorite silhouette, our favorite sneaker, and because it’s the most important sneaker for the culture here. In Europe, the Air Max is one of the most important sneakers, not like in the U.S. where basketball and Jordans are probably more important. Here in Europe the running shoes were big, and in Spain the Air Max was a sure hit. I remember looking for the Air Max 1s, then the Air Max 97, oh my God, to me it’s the perfect shoe. If I had to send one shoe to the aliens, it would be the Air Max 1 (laughs).