EKOS Sabbatical: We went to buy cleats and end up touring the factory

Tour de Tony II

The kids needed soccer cleats for Phys Ed class at school and soccer after school. I asked around where a good and “economico” place to buy cleats would be. A neighbor recommended that we go in to the Centro ( downtown) to a factory outlet called Tony II. The center of town is a retail powerhouse - tons of shops and certainly a whole different vibe than going to the big malls or “centros commercials” that are here in the South of the city. But I looked it up on google maps and could see it was right next to a public transit (Mio) stop, and looked at street view to confirm we could find it. So we headed off after school on Friday.

I was kind of excited because it turns out Tony II is a Colombian brand of cleats, and I was happy to be buying the local brand, and not another thing imported from China to a big box store. We were attended super well in a small but nice shop, but of course I had to ask- who is Tony, and why is it named Tony II, what about Tony I? And according to the women in the shop it turned out Tony himself was around, and hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the store, and so we go to meet him and ask the story directly.

Tony was the ultimate classic character - immediately apparent and perfect in every way. He has been making cleats in Colombia for 40 years. It turns out his older brother was called Tony, because back in the 60s, guys who greased their hair and dressed up fancy were called “Tony” after the US star Tony Curtis. His actual name was Benjamin, but Tony stuck. And the younger brother was called Tony II ( Tony the second) because he followed his older brother around. he had a wonderful florid description for what a Tony was, and we even learned a new expression “pipiripau” for someone who is elegant - who is “the man”.

Simon, looking through every color in his size, finally found one he likes but the insole was a little uneven. So I ask for another, and they send it upstairs to be fixed. So we have to wait a while and it occurs to me to ask - where is the factory of Tony II, and they say its upstairs. And indeed I have to ask for a tour of the factory, which we ended up getting, with Super Buena Onda, from Tony II himself!

First stop was wear the leather gets punched out by a huge hydraulic press, some delicious combo of machinery and the art of using the leather carefully. The black and blue U shapes on the table are the toes of cleats...

Here are the aluminum punches - that must be made different for each size or model of cleat

Then the leather is taking to the sewing and gluing room, where they pieces are stitched up and glued together. Sweatshop? Toxic fumes? or a small company working hard?

Tony is demonstrating this huge heat and pressure machine that molds the front of the shoe around a foot mold

Here are the molded uppers on the "assembly line" going past the stations of machines on their way towards the soles..

After the glue and the nail, the sole is sewed on by this super huge sewing machine, and the guys is pushing the two pieces through. This was impressive to watch.