ELENA BENAVENTE

Updated Thursday, January 18, 2024-2:20 p.m.

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This week Joma has hit the headlines because

of

Pedro Sánchez.

The President of the Government

has decided to wear one of his coat models at the Davos economic forum.

The warm and padded garment quickly went viral and even sold out thanks to

influencer

Pedro Sánchez.

Joma is one of the most important national and international companies that Spain has produced and its founder, Fructuoso López, appears on the list of the richest that El Mundo prepares every year.

In 1942, Portillo de Toledo saw the birth of

Fructuoso López.

A young man with drive and desire to undertake, who at only 22 years old decided to form an empire.

At an early age, Fructuoso became interested in footwear and, already in 1951,

he entered as an apprentice in a repair shop

.

Thus, during his adolescence, he cultivated the trade and, after returning from military service, he wanted to go it alone.

Then, López asked his boss for 15 pairs of lasts and, without further resources,

began making sneakers with a sewing machine.

The commented look of Pedro Sánchez during the World Economic Forum in DavosEL MUNDO (Video)

Thus, Fructuoso opened Joma in 1965. A company with family values, whose

name refers to the nickname of his first son

.

"I founded Joma with the commitment to dedicate all the effort, time and affection to it," comments the businessman from his website.

However, despite his humble origins, López always had a great vision for the future.

He wanted his company to travel the world and he was willing to fight for it.

"I always had the desire to be an entrepreneur.

I wanted to create my own company and make it the best company in the world. But the truth is that it was a difficult start. Joma is in an area where there was no industrial fabric and I founded it without having experience business. However, from the first moment I had confidence and security that the project would turn out well. I trusted in my possibilities, in my tenacity, in my effort and in my determination to move it forward," he declared to

ABC

in 2013 .

Of course, López's perseverance paid off and just four years after its founding, the businessman managed to install his

first assembly line

with 20 employees.

At first, Joma dedicated itself to manufacturing sneakers, but soon after, it also introduced

soccer boots

and, later,

colored boots

.

Something extremely unthinkable for the time and that caused more than one criticism.

The reason?

According to Fructuoso, few were willing to take risks.

"We failed at first, because the store owners did not take risks with

colored sneakers

, but I gave them a few pairs so they could have them in the window and it was a resounding success. So much so that even

the president of Nike noticed Joma and our revolution

," López explained, in 2020, about his audacity.

The same one that in 1983 led him to devise a plan to internationalize and land in Munich to attend the ISPO, the largest European fair in the sports sector.

Four years later, Fructuoso López once again opted for his project and dared to invest in a 65,000 square meter factory where, until now, his shoes and clothing are made.

Likewise, he opted for advertising at a time when brands did not usually do so.

Even so, the businessman believed in the impossible and became the

sponsor of footballers

like

Emilio Butragueño

, from Real Madrid, and Txiki

Begiristain

, from Barcelona, ​​who all wore his models.

Since then, López has managed to make Joma a

reference brand

and since 2000 he has managed to sell his products in 120 countries... and with striking results.

In fact, according to official figures,

Joma exports 70%

of the more than 5,000 packages it manufactures daily, so it is not surprising that in 2019 it increased its sales by 35% and that in 2020 it stoically endured the crisis. .

What's more, today Joma Sport does not stop and Fructuoso continues to think about tomorrow... The company, as he has mentioned numerous times,

will be inherited by five of his six children

: José Manuel, Alberto, Fructuoso, Alicia and Marina, who already They have important positions.

"I have taught my children humility so that they do not believe they are kings of the world. But if they are in the position they are in, it is because they serve. My children are the first who have to give an example of their worth, and not to me, but to others," López told

Expansión

about the future owners of Joma.