24.01.2025 The Bulgarian company INGILIZ with a glamorous appearance at the inauguration of Donald Trump

A few days ago, INGILIZ made a historic breakthrough with its contribution to the glitz of the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, USA. The winner of the fourth season of American Idol and Grammy winner Carrie Underwood performed the a cappella at the swearing-in of the American President, wearing the ASTRID 101 model of the Bulgarian company. Especially for the occasion, the shoes were painted in a "nude" color to match Carrie's dress, and include INGILIZ's signature gold-plated designer heel. According to her stylist Marina Toibina, Carrie was impressed by the comfort and perfect fit of the shoes.

"Give a woman the right shoes and she will conquer the world," is one of Marilyn Monroe's immortal lines.

The INGILIZ story completely confirms it. It began in 1976 when the young Fatima joined a former socialist shoe factory. She quickly transmitted her passion for fashion to her son, Gürsel, who graduated with a degree in fashion shoe design and started working in the same factory in 1983. There, he held various positions as a technologist and model maker and improved his skills, and a few years later his entrepreneurship and attention to detail led to the founding of the family company INGILIZ, inspired by the Ingiliz family name.

It embodies the concept of "family business", uniting several generations with a common goal - creating the perfect shoe. "Working together with my father, my brother, my aunt, my mother, we're all here. This is our biggest pride," says Gürsel's son, Remzi.

The beginning was humble - on an area of 15 square metres and with two sewing machines, the production of the company's first products began. Initially, they were entirely focused on the local market and through a network of distributors they were positioned in all major cities in Bulgaria.

Four years later, in 2000, the company has purchased its first own workshop. INGILIZ made an extremely bold bet by starting the first domestic production of shoe covers. Today, it has completely closed the loop and is a leader in the Balkans in the creation of consumables - molds, sarees, tabs and soles.

As the company grew, Remzi Ingilizov, whose vision for development proved to be key, became increasingly involved in its management. Under his influence, INGILIZ moved into the luxury segment in 2013, focusing on increasingly higher quality items and focusin mainly on online sales.

"When we repositioned the brand, we also decided to discontinue the distribution network because we wanted to take the product to another level and we saw the future of e-commerce," says Remzi. This venture transforms all processes in the company and forces a whole new model of customer profiling and targeting.

The experience was clearly a success, as 10 years later 50% of the factory's production is sold in the US and in the premium footwear segment. 30% went to China and only 7% stayed at home.

To cover such a large part of the world, the factory has 11 strategic partners.

Perhaps the most popular brand currently producing its models in partnership with INGILIZ is By Far - we have seen Gigi Hadid, Hai Bieber and Dakota Johnson wearing their shoes.

Demobaza is another of the clients of the family company from Peshtera. These are two Bulgarian designers who created the costumes for Dune and have worked on a number of box office productions including The Hunger Games, Men in Black 4: Global Threat and Black Panther.

In addition to shoes, the company sells molds for factories in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. Before the pandemic, Covid-19 worked with 488 companies, now only 50. The rest are still recovering from the crisis.

To make a shoe, you need a mould, then several prototypes, a final sample and only at the end comes the real specimen, ready to wear, explain Gürsel and Remzi.

However, every rule has an exception.

In 2016, Gianfranco Pierantoni appeared at the factory. He is from the movie making business. He is a film producer and owns a stage costume studio. He's got a problem - he's 700 pairs of shoes short for a production and has two weeks in which INGILIZ can produce them.

"It sounded a little funny to me. Asking for something from today for tomorrow, and so specific. He left us a drawing, a deposit and left," says Remzi. He adds that it's a real challenge to skip stages in production because things are hard to get right the first time.

However, the trial proved successful and from that moment INGILIZ rode onto the big screen stage, shoehorning the characters into phenomenal productions like Game of Thrones and Star Wars. "From 2020, we decided that all the products we make for movies or for celebrities, we will produce them in two pieces and now we are stockpiling them. When one day we have the rights to them, we will show them. For now, we are filling a warehouse with shoes," laughs Remzi.

For the factory from Peshtera, it's an exciting adventure full of unpredictable situations - like having to produce two different shoes on an emergency basis for Morgan Freeman due to specifics in his numbering, a men's model number 35 for Peter Dinklidge or a women's high shoe number 45 for Scandinavian drag show contestants.

Besides being undeniably interesting, INGILIZ's work is environmentally responsible.

The company is completely energy independent, working on various initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions in the environment. Traditional light sources have been replaced entirely by LED fixtures in all its production, administrative and commercial facilities. It has also started an initiative to switch to 100% renewable green energy sources.

Six photovoltaic rooftop installations produce approximately 4,500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, covering the company's entire consumption, saving 486 tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to the annual consumption of around 580 households or the emissions of 270 cars.

The green idea is further developed in the highly efficient recycling system and the reduction of waste in the cutting of the skins. "The system is unique in Bulgaria, as there are only four working ones in the whole of Europe," explains Remzi Ingilizov.

INGILIZ is developing a water-based adhesive to replace acetone, the shoe zips are created from recycled bottles. Both the components and the shoe packaging are recycled.

The innovative company has financed the development of its operations with the support of the Bulgarian Development Bank, and its future plans include expansion into new markets and improving the technologies used.