Throughout the history of the Brazilian footwear industry, many regions across different states have been transformed over more than eight decades of tradition and growth. As the biggest footwear industry in the West, the sector is also the fifth largest employer within Brazil’s manufacturing industry, directly and indirectly impacting 1.2 million people along the footwear production chain. Job creation and income generation fuel social development in more than 600 cities, home to around 5,300 footwear companies. Three of these companies share a glimpse of this impact and their social outreach efforts in the BF Talks series. Watch the third episode, featuring social impact initiatives led by Brazilian footwear brands Pampili, Piccadilly, and Vulcabras.

The episode features Ana Carolina Grings, Vice President and Product Director at Piccadilly; Maria Colli, CEO and Founder of Pampili; and Thaiany Assad, Corporate Communication and ESG Director at Vulcabras. Education, culture, sports, and health are the pillars that support the social initiatives carried out by footwear companies in the communities where they operate. “Our purpose is to encourage women on their journeys, inspiring them to discover the power they have within themselves. From that point on, we started offering a wide range of female empowerment content through various initiatives,” says Ana Carolina, recalling that when her grandfather founded Piccadilly in the city of Igrejinha, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, his goal was to create job opportunities for both the family and the local community.

With a workforce made up of 87% women, Pampili, based in the city of Birigui, São Paulo, founded the Instituto Terra do Rosa in 2008. “More than 2,500 children have taken part in this project, which begins when they are six years old and continues until their first job. We focus on emotional education, citizenship, and values,” says Maria Colli, CEO and founder of Pampili. For Vulcabras, the mission is to help build a better country through sports. The company supports 13 social projects in addition to offering training courses for its employees. “When we arrived in Horizonte, Ceará, it was a city with fewer than 17,000 residents. We brought a completely new daily work routine. Today, we see a city that has grown to 70,000 inhabitants, and Vulcabras alone directly employs around 11,000 people. It’s now a much more structured city, able to provide better support to its residents without depending on neighboring cities,” highlights Thaiany. She also points out that more than 1,000 young apprentices graduate from the facility each year—and 98% of them are hired by the company.