Munich

In a nondescript workshop in the small Catalan town of Capellades, brothers Francisco and Lorenzo Berneda began crafting shoes for local athletes in 1939. Eight decades later, their creation – Munich – has evolved from humble sporting equipment into a global symbol of Spanish design with a distinctive red X marking each shoe.

The brand's origin in the difficult post-Civil War period of Spanish history required ingenuity with limited resources. The brothers initially repurposed rubber from used bicycle tires to create durable soles for handball and futsal shoes – sports particularly popular in Catalonia. This foundation in specialized athletic footwear created a technical expertise that would later inform the brand's expansion into fashion.

Munich's transformation began in the 1990s when the third generation of the Berneda family recognized that their distinctive sports designs – particularly their indoor soccer shoes with their signature X reinforcement – had potential beyond athletic performance. By maintaining the essential design elements that made their shoes functional while refining materials and colorways, Munich created a new category that bridged athletic heritage and contemporary fashion.

Today, Munich operates at a fascinating intersection – simultaneously producing high-performance sports shoes for serious athletes while creating style-focused collections that draw inspiration from this sporting heritage. Their flagship X-series models maintain the iconic cross reinforcement that originated as a functional feature but has evolved into the brand's most recognizable design element. As Spanish fashion has gained international recognition, Munich represents a distinctly Catalan success story – demonstrating how technical expertise in a specialized field can evolve into broader design relevance while maintaining connections to local sporting traditions.