The León Meléndez Family: Pirma Company
The story of this brand begins in 1987 with Rafael, the family patriarch, who opened a small shoe sole workshop. Just three years later, he founded his own shoe manufacturing company, named Maquiladora de Calzado Caribean. In 1992, he added the San Javier Manufacturing Company to his empire, and in 1994, the San Javier Manufacturing Company, which produced athletic footwear for his other two companies, specializing in running and basketball models. A year later, he opened his own sole and polyurethane factory.
By 1998, all these companies had joined forces to create Pirma-Brasil, a new athletic footwear brand. Its original name was inspired by Pirmasens, a German city famous for its shoe production. Despite this, the acronym Prima was originally intended to mean “To Go Faster,” becoming the brand’s official name (without the “Brazil”) after the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property (IMPI) told them they couldn’t use a country name.
Pirma has managed to expand beyond Mexico’s borders, according to its website, reaching markets such as the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Its catalog is very diverse, offering products for sports such as soccer, basketball, boxing, athletics, tennis, and even wrestling. The brand currently has production plants in its hometown of San Francisco del Rincón and in the city of León.
