The story of Jimmy Grimble

If you are from Manchester there are two ways of living life. Both have to do with football. Both are recognized in two so essential and contrasting colors: Red and blue.

The rivalry between United and City is one of the most heated throughout English football and frames the story of Jimmy Grimble (film released in 2001), a shy young footballer from the outskirts of Manchester who has the dream of one day playing for City, his favorite club. In addition to having to deal with some school bullies cheering for United daily, Jimmy suffers from an utter lack of self-confidence. Finally, it comes by the day of his debut at the school tournament, but Jimmy can no longer find the playing shoes he had just bought. The school bus is about to leave for the trip and while looking for them around the city, he comes across a house in ruins, inhabited by a poor old woman. Jimmy tells her that he has lost his boots and, without it, he will not be able to enter the field. Then the gray-haired lady dusts off a pair of leather boots which, according to legend, would have belonged to a historic Manchester City striker. “With those, I will score a lot of goals,” Jimmy immediately thinks.

Just thinking about wearing magic shoes allows him to shake off all that uncertainty and shyness that had hindered him to express himself on the pitch, and to become the best player of the tournament. As this story teaches, the newest product may not necessarily be the best. Leather shoes, which the film's protagonist believed to be magical, were certainly unsuitable for playing football (at least in the 21st century). But each object brings with it a story to tell and by reusing those shoes, Jimmy has given them new life.

Reusing and product qualities

Reusing means to still use a good that has not become waste. How many shoes, clothes, or accessories are thrown away because the fashion of the time, which Giacomo Leopardi compared to death in his “Operette Morali”, decreed their end?

 The flea markets have spread as a commercial structure that encourages a circular economy through affordable prices. Reusing, therefore, reduces the production of new waste and at the same time optimizes the energy contained in the objects.

Gradually, the hyper-consumer society we are used to begins to realize that it is no longer sustainable. Of the 24 billion pairs of shoes produced globally every year, most end up in landfills, and this causes major recycling problems.

Footwear is often made up of several materials and dividing them is expensive in terms of time and money. Being able to regenerate a product by itself, the circular economy is the only viable option for not making the planet an open landfill, since a solution to properly dispose of all the waste produced every day has not yet been found.

A life long product must necessarily be of good quality. In the footwear sector, handcrafted shoes are more likely to last over time thanks to high-quality materials and workmanship carried out with care in every detail. As with any valuable object, the shoe also needs care. They do not get offended if they are given a polish from time to time, they prefer the brush to the washing machine and, if made by leather, avoid being in the sun for a long time. Puddles are not their best friends. A handcrafted shoe can last for years and, in the case of children, can be reused by brothers and sisters, by cousins ​​and friends. Therefore, focusing on quality is an investment that pays off in the long run in terms of future savings and sustainability.

If the elderly woman from Manchester hadn't said that those old football boots had belonged to a glorious Manchester City striker, Jimmy would never have believed they would be magical on the pitch. Hence he would have never truly believed in himself.

With this spirit and in his honor we have now available online Pèpè JIMMY directly from our ARCHIVE, representative model of all those features that we have listed above.