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Our Story
CICLA was born in El Porvenir, a district of Trujillo city — a region renowned for its rich shoemaking tradition. Here, craftsmanship is not just a skill but a way of life, carried forward by families who have dedicated themselves to perfecting the art for decades. We are proud to work alongside local artisans who infuse each piece with their expertise and cultural legacy, ensuring that our shoes not only embody quality but also represent the spirit and resilience of this vibrant community.
The tradition of footwear in the Trujillo region is said to have begun in the 1930s, when a union of miners in Quiruvilca demanded that the company provide shoes for the workers. Local artisans organized to meet this demand, and the footwear industry endured. To this day, several generations of manufacturers have continued to create leather shoes with great dedication and know-how, making Trujillo the Peruvian footwear capital.
Since the end of the 90s, Trujillo shoemaking has struggled to compete against foreign imports of industrial footwear: always faster, cheaper and more disposable. To stay in the market, many shoemakers resort to cheaper inputs, imported synthetic materials and reduce their margins. However, many have already closed their workshops and migrated to other sectors in search of opportunities.
In contrast to industrial fashion, we believe in what takes time: a shoe that is not made in seconds, but in hours. Here we do not compete with machines; we offer history, detail and soul, paying attention to the materials, the design, the confection and the ecological print. And we care about conscious trade that can give fair compensation to the manufacturer.
Behind the scene.
They co-created the first model of CICLA with Trujillan artisans and the Center of Productive Innovation and Technology Transfer leather and footwear (CITEccal Trujillo). And the CICLA project received the financial support of the ProInnovate funds granted by the Peruvian Ministry of Production.
Before CICLA, there was a shared investigation led by Amandine—a French anthropologist who dedicated her master’s thesis to the crisis of shoemaking in Trujillo—and Guillermo, an entrepreneur born and raised in the same city. Together, they met with more than fifty artisans, entrepreneurs, engineers, and public officials involved in the local footwear sector. For several months, they immersed themselves in the daily life of workshops, factories, and administrative offices, listening, learning, and witnessing both the resilience and the challenges of the industry.
CICLA was born from this deep dive—not as an outside solution, but as a continuation of those conversations, relationships, and shared hopes. Today, we pursue that commitment by building a project rooted in collaboration, fair trade, and local knowledge.
