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In the last decade, the Spanish sports footwear specialist Munich has updated its iconic style, and its trademark X, to become a premium brand in street footwear. High design, quality leather and urban fashion have made Munich shoes a must-have for a young, dynamic consumer who wants to be on trend.

With Italy its main market, the company expects to close 2009 with growth of 20%. For Xavier Berneda, marketing director and a third generation member of this family business, success is down to listening to your customers.

Seventy years making sports footwear have turned Munich into one of the coolest brands around. How much is about sport and how much about fashion?
Sixty-five per cent of our sales are street sneakers, and 35% sports footwear. I always say that the fashion barons have the upper hand over the sports chiefs! Personally, I’ve always thought of myself as a sportsman. But right from the start we were ready for a challenge and fashion certainly is one. I think we’ve finally achieved the balance we were looking for.

The fashion version of the Munich icons is the Special Edition collection and its signature sneaker is Goal. How did that design come about?
The idea came from an Italian distributor. He liked Goal because it had a history. It was designed for indoor football and that’s what he was looking for. We restyled it in 1999, changing the lasts a bit, until we arrived at what we sell today. A company has to keep its ears open. Goal, Acropol and Roc are the only product models we distribute as fashion footwear. We have a children’s version too.

The Munich trademark is well known in fashion and sports, partly because of the X on the side, the brand logo...
The X is a result of a sewing system we use to join the front and back parts of the shoe. We put in a band that ran from one side to the other. The X was to hide the seam. Munich has always been an innovator. We were the first to inject rubber into the football boot sole. We make white football boots instead of the more ordinary black. And we make toes specially for indoor football, where the ball is smaller and heavier. But the true complexity of it lies in making 500 to 600 colours of each design.

“If Munich had never made basketball shoes, it couldn’t launch a retro design now”

For a sports footwear specialist to be a street brand, you need a very powerful communication strategy. What’s Munich's approach?
First you have to have a communications office that knows how to sell your product strengths. In the case of Munich, that’s about being aspirational, up to date and using top quality leather. The product has to have its own history and identity, too. If Munich had never made basketball shoes, it couldn’t launch a retro collection. Your partners, i.e. the shops, are also important. If you’re not in the best shop window displays, you might as well not be in any. And you have to stay in close touch with the press as well.