Barcelona-based Design collective Top Manta take their name from the word mantero, a common name used to describe street vendors.  After opening their first clothing store in 2018, in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, they registered as a nonprofit organization, the Top Manta Cooperative, in 2020.

The first sneakers of Top Manta’s own social and solidarity brand are called Ande Dem, which means “walking together” in Wolof, the Senegalese language spoken by many of the manteros in Barcelona. The sneakers are produced locally, equitably, and sustainably; all the proceeds from their sales will be used to improve the living conditions of the manteros, who after two years of collective work recently unionized, as well as to offer legal assistance to regularize their situation and to encourage their inclusion in the labor market.