Age is not an impediment to fulfilling your dreams. And if not, let them tell Matilde Palomino, a conejera based in Gran Canaria who at 50 years old decided to fulfill her dream and set up a ballerina business. The "hobby", as she explains that she started everything, has reached the Palacio de la Zarzuela, since both Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía have worn products from the Canarian company.
“I turned 50, one of my sons was finishing his studies and the other finished his degree. I had time to think about what I wanted to do with my life and I decided to set up this project”, explains Matilde Palomino, who did not hesitate to start the business, despite being “out of the market”.
“What I really like is dealing with people, talking to them. It fills me and makes me very happy”, says this entrepreneur, who in Lanzarote always worked facing the public, in jobs such as a guide, in a travel agency or as a saleswoman.
When she decided to set up the business, she focused on something she liked "since she was little": ballerinas. And she only needed the push and help of one person, her friend Eva. “She is my other half, everything I lacked she had”, points out Matilde, who specifies that her friend collaborated with her in starting the business.
Then Eva moved to Madrid and later to Mexico, due to her husband's work. “When Eva left, we moved all the stock to the physical store in Las Palmas”, she explains.
A “good” start despite the pandemic
Mathildes Shoes started on October 25, 2019 and, despite the fact that the beginnings in business are usually difficult, Matilde assures that hers were “good”. “At that time there was no talk of a pandemic, and Gran Canaria was an island with many tourists and cruises, and it was a very good time”, she says.
However, March 14, 2020 arrived, and with it the national confinement and the closure of all non-essential businesses. However, the first days of March were “very good” for Mathildas Shoes. “After all, we didn't know what was going to happen, and it was spring and communion time”, she adds.
Afterwards, she was forced to close the store due to the pandemic and the confinement, although Matilde appreciates that the owner of the premises “behaved very well” regarding the issue of rent. Then came May 11, the day she was able to open the small business, and Matilde narrates that people went to buy “like crazy”. “There were clients who took 4 pairs of ballerinas. I think it was a bit of desperation, the confinement, they needed to talk and they went and told you their life”.
“I am super happy because people have continued to trust me. However, it is no longer the same as the first months, because now there are very few foreigners, and I live more from the peninsular and Canarian clientele”, she adds.
Only ballerinas and with closed collections
The main characteristic of Matilde Palomino's business is, precisely, the exclusivity of the sale of ballerinas. “It's what I like, and I wanted to specialize in just one product”, she explains.
“There are people who tell me why I don't sell bags, and I don't want to, I only want ballerinas”, says Matilde, who adds that she doesn't want to get “into competition” with other businesses in the area.
“I don't do this out of economic necessity”, she says, adding that “she doesn't take risks” when choosing the product. “In this job you have to act a bit like a psychologist, get to know the client. Foreigners look for color, while locals go for darker tones. I'm adapting”, she explains.
Matilde Palomino points out that in her business they work exclusively “with small collections”, which she orders based on demand. “Behind the boxes of ballerinas there are bills to pay. And what I want is not to owe money, so I control the orders”.
Own designs and online sales
Matilde Palomino has not only made her dream a reality, but she also works daily to ensure that it continues to exist. To do this, all the designs of the ballerinas are made by her, who with her ingenuity and originality makes an endless number of ballerinas.
“We have a factory in Alicante, they have models and leathers. They manufacture what I want, depending on what color I want, the design of the toe and so on”, explains the entrepreneur, who also highlights that she does everything “with passion”, and without having received prior training.
“My mother says that I inherited my grandmother's love for fashion”, says Matilde while laughing, and assures that she tries to “write well” the requests for the designs she has in her head, so that they can be reproduced perfectly in the factory.
In addition to sales in the store located in the capital of Gran Canaria, Mathildas Shoes offers online sales through its website. It also has an Instagram profile where they show many of their designs.
“From the beginning we always put a website, having my partner Eva in Madrid. She was always in charge of the website, and I was in charge of the physical store in Las Palmas”, explains Matilde, who also assures that the orders “don't take long to arrive home”, since they work with a private parcel company.
The ballerinas of Mathildas Shoes, in the Royal House
Perhaps the "boom" of Matilde Palomino's company came when her friend Eva, who she says was “very determined”, sent emails to numerous “celebrities” to promote her ballerinas, including the Royal House. “The Queen's secretary was the only one who answered us, saying that she was willing to see our product”, Matilde recalls with emotion.
Her friend Eva was the one who went to the Palacio de la Zarzuela to deliver some pairs of ballerinas, and once they saw them and tried them on, they kept three of them. “We collected the ones they didn't want and they made the deposit for the three pairs of ballerinas”.
Matilde Palomino explains that the Royal House does not advertise brands, so they had to be attentive to see if any member of the Royal House wore her ballerinas. Princess Leonor was the one who, at a presentation of a submarine in Andalusia, wore red Mathildas Shoes ballerinas for the first time, which she even repeated at an awards ceremony in Girona.
In addition, Infanta Sofía wore other of Matilde's ballerinas, in this case navy blue ones, on a visit by the Royal House to Ukrainian refugees. “We did the same procedure, we sent emails and the magazines echoed it”.
“I only have words of gratitude to the Royal House, which has noticed a mini-company of ballerinas that was born from two friends with 50 years as a hobby”, says Matilde Palomino emotionally, who recognizes that of the emails sent to “celebrities”, the one she least expected a response from was precisely from the Royal House.