According to its sales director, Mats Lindholm, Calzados Bestard, the Spanish brand of mountain boots, generated €5 million in revenues last year. This was 5 percent less than the record-setting total for 2018, when the Mallorcan brand released a number of new models, among them a collection with Gore-Tex Surround.

Speaking to CMDsport, Lindholm called 2019 an “intermediate” year for product launches, in light of the market’s general decline in demand and the brand’s own declines in exports to Iran and Turkey (exports did rise to Australia and New Zealand, however). He said also that the outdoor industry as a whole considered 2019 to have been “a strange year,” with stalled demand in spring and summer followed by a soft autumn. The uncertainty is such that “small specialized businesses are suffering because of the new ways of buying, while distributors are increasingly focused on large online and offline operators.” Bestard, he believes, enjoys an advantage because of its wide customer base, which runs from small specialists to most of the big operators, and its “notoriety in the market.”

The company is also working internally on digitalization and automation. Lindholm expects Bastard’s forthcoming products to do well on their launch this spring and autumn. Its trekking and advanced trekking models will come with a new sole called Quantic Tech, developed in collaboration with Italian designers and technicians and intended to improve comfort, stability and look.

Calvados Bestard is a family-run business founded in 1940 in the small Mallorcan village of Lloseta, Spain.