Words and photos: Miguel Barbot

Rute Vieira and José Lima, Ideal & Co founders.

Porto-based Ideal & Co is a case study. Founded in 2012 by Rute Vieira and Zé Lima, the brand aimed to revive the craftsmanship associated with working with leather in Serras de Aire e Candeeiros, where Rute’s family roots are located.

If the story they told at the time was true, Ideal & Co. gradually made a shift that defies the logic followed by many brands that appeared in the first decade of the 21th century as soon as they faced the challenge of scaling up. At Ideal & Co, craftsmanship has become increasingly internalised, rather than outsourcing production to suppliers who can offer larger quantities and lower prices. The formula for achieving a bigger scale and brand growth is simple but effective: the focus on craftsmanship is total, but the range has been diversified to offer multiple lines, with consistent yet different styles and three levels of materials: full leather, selvedge cotton, and a more contemporary entry-level line in cotton canvas. Quality and craftsmanship are not compromised, as internal processes are continually optimised to enable gains in production. Of course, this requires an extraordinary work capacity from the founders, who still do most of the skilled work at the workshop and are in a continuous learning path. Is this what ‘Craft’ means at a time when we are closer to the middle of the century than its beginning?

This focus on craftsmanship and super-high quality is enabled through permanent investment in machinery (some of the machines they buy are older than the founders themselves) and knowledge.

Curiosity drives innovation, and for Zé and Rute, innovation is finding old machines and understanding how they can still be useful to solve production problems. This curiosity has led to technical refinement, new ways of operating the equipment and the discovery of new solutions to the various production challenges and opportunities that arise, both in Ideal & Co, and client work . Having fun while doing it is also part of the formula: it is not uncommon to arrive at the workshop and see Zé enthusiastically showing off the machines, moulds and other equipment they bought from an old shoemaker or glove factory: “What can I do with this?”

This mindset has allowed for the improvement of the collections, as well as the ability to embrace challenges proposed by customers, such as the one they had at hand during our last visit: to make hundreds of gloves for a Nordic brand.

1. The Barão do Corvo shop, in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto) 2. There’s always a four legged pal. 3. Preparing a retail order 4. Rute Vieira 5-7. Leather everywhere 8. Repair service pipeline 9. Leather tote bag 10. No shortcuts, everything is made by hand in Porto 11. Good parts 12. Japanese leather care 13. Tools of the trade 14. Know your target groups. 15. Goku supervising 16. A stack of bags from a collaboration with inGamba Tours 17. Francisca’s impeccable focus.

The collaboration with us at Barbot Bernardo, which took shape in a strategic support project that began almost a year ago, at the end of 2024, started by the need to reorganise the ideas and different areas of work of this power duo and to focus their energy on launching a new phase of Ideal & Co.

Currently, Ideal & Co’s parent company’s activities span multiple business areas that leverage the founder’s technical expertise, production network, and over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry. A year of work requires concentration on the design, preparation, and production of multiple collections for international brands, private label projects, and special collaborations between Ideal & Co and partners who share audiences and values.

At the same time, some other areas need attention, such as finishing the building that houses the shop, workshop, and future family residence, thinking about long-term personal projects unrelated to current work, guiding efforts and focusing energies on a shared vision for the company, and ensuring the viability of the Ideal & Co project as their primary source of income.

After a comprehensive strategic assessment, we identified areas for improvement and re-analysed the activities of this competitive market, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The first reflection was precisely related to the redesign of the internationalisation model: should we bet everything on specialised retail, as we had done in the past, with essential customers in Asia forcing us to attend trade fairs and engage in costly commercial activities? Or should we diverge to a riskier direct-to-consumer model? Or something in between? And what would be the role of the new physical shop in Porto?

The second reflection was related to product policy: what is Ideal&Co today? How are technical capacity and added skill reflected in product quality? Which lines should we explore?

The third reflection was dedicated to the creative direction of the brand: Does the value proposition still make sense? What ‘vibe’ does the brand have or could have? How do non-Western customers see the brand nowadays? Where are our roots? Should the brand return to its initial, remarkably ‘vintage American’ aesthetic, or should we follow a more Atlantic path that better reflects our common culture on this side of Europe?

1-4. Good old stuff.

These and other reflections were systematised in a workshop in which we worked to define priorities and a strategic path, which was designed in the next stage, where we followed a planning model that covered the different areas of marketing (value proposition, audiences, product strategy, communication and community, pricing and distribution policy) and the definition of a roadmap for the 2026-2027 biennium, which includes the different milestones we should focus on during this period and the role of the other partners with whom the brand has been working.

In the next few months, we expect to provide more direct support on communication, visual identity and the overall implementation of the plan.