(English) Best Practices

Timpers was born from the collaboration of Diego, Aitor and Roberto, three friends part of the same football team in Alicante. Their peculiarity: Diego is blind, Roberto has a kidney transplant and Aitor has cystic fibrosis. Diego was able to see a lot of things, about materials and flexibility. He would define shoes better than anyone who could actually see. With a strong entrepreneurial spirit, they created a company. Their mission is to sell quality shoes, manufactured in Alicante, for a full normalization of disability in the workplace, social environment and any area of society. That is why, currently, its staff is made up of people with disabilities, from the founders to the latest addition to the team.

Different aspects of this Best practice are relevant with regards to sustainability aspects, beside the important focus on inclusion:

• Local production: all manufacturing processes are made in Alicante province.
• The main material of the shoe is a canvas made of 100% organic cotton certified by GOTS. They use natural gum for the sole of the shoe to avoid glues or solvents.

The purpose of Timpers as a company is none other than to improve the working and social conditions of people with disabilities.The long-term objective is to make people's disabilities visible and, above all, normalize in a work environment, so that, over time, it is present in all areas of life in a natural way. Their lema is “Our abilities matter more than our disabilities”.

Inclusion of people with disabilities

Timpers founders received the first price of entrepreneurship of the University of Alicante in which they were studying. Since that first award, they started looking for resources. In 2019, they were selected to take part in Lanzadera, a major business accelerator, so the three partners moved to Valencia. They were then followed by prizes and recognitions, and they became the official footwear for all the players in the Levante UD adapted sports categories, for the ball boys at the Mutua Open Madrid in 2021 and for the entire Spanish delegation of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Timpers are constituted as a Special Employment Center (CEE), which certifies that at least 70% of their workforce have some kind of disability. CEE No. 294 in the register of Special Employment Centers of the Valencian Community.

GOTS certification for the organic cotton.

With business on the rise, one of the challenges Timpers now faces is finding qualified staff. According to the Observatory on Disability and the Labor Market in Spain, run by Fundación Once, 32% of young people with disabilities do not complete primary school and only 3.8% have higher education. "Finding talent is complicated. At first, it was easier because we got together people with desire and enthusiasm, but as you grow, you need to surround yourself with people who know a lot about their sector and it is very difficult to find qualified and trained people. From institutions and The universities have to do something to encourage this, because in the end training is a matter of attitude, of breaking down the limits that oneself sets", claims Diego Soliveres.

Bluemedia Studio, (2022) De Alicante a los juegos Olímpicos: la historia detrás de las zapatillas que rompen barreras https://www.20minutos.es/especiales/timpers-brand-zapatillas-sostenibles-romper-barreras/