All Poppy Barley factories are screened with the following Code of Conduct tool.
Furthermore, we screen factories by visiting the factory, interviewing the factory owner and select employees, and by auditing a random selection of payroll and personnel files.
The Poppy Barley Factory Code of Conduct Tool was developed based on the International Labour Organization core labour standards and the laws in the countries where we operate. These are the minimum requirements we seek from all factories.
LOCATION: León, MEXICO Number of employees: 22 Year established: 1996
The Owner This factory was founded twenty years ago by Lupita. Poppy Barley co-founders Kendall and Justine Barber serendipitously met Lupita when their shoe broker’s 12-year old daughter came home and reported her best friend’s mom (Lupita) was willing to meet these crazy women from Canada, who started with the dream of doing made to order footwear.
The Factory Lupita recruited all of her shoemakers from the sample rooms of León’s top manufacturers. (It is in the sample rooms of larger factories where the first prototype of every new shoe style is handcrafted before it is mass-produced by an assembly line.) The artisans have decades of experience in shoemaking, having launched their careers when it was still the norm to make shoes entirely by hand.
LOCATION: León, MEXICO Number of employees: 55 Year established: 1989
The Owner Husband-and-wife-team José and Maria moved from Spain to Mexico in 1989 to create a better life for their family. Making handbags in their kitchen, they invested $2000 USD to buy a leather-cutting table, a used sewing machine and a trip to L.A. to purchase sheepskin imported from Europe. Nowadays their son Sebastian is in training to take over the family business.
The Factory The vision was (and continues to be) to make the highest quality products. Today, this factory is recognized as the top handbag producer in Mexico. Today, they produce all of Poppy Barley's bags, including cult favourites the Backpack, andthe Weekend Tote. In 2018 the factory installed solar panels on the roof and now run on 100% solar power (taking advantage of the fact that Leon is one of the sunniest places in the world.)
LOCATION: Guadalajara, Jalisco, MEXICONumber of employees: 28 Year established: 1990
This factory is owned and operated by Francisco, who has worked in the leather goods manufacturing industry all his life. He developed the entrepreneurial spirit from an early age and always knew he wanted to have his own business. Founded in 1990, the factory has a small team of very skilled and talented artisans who specialize in the production of small leather goods. Half of the employees are women, and most of them started at the factory without any previous knowledge in the industry.
If you have any other questions regarding our shoemaking practices, or the story behind Poppy Barley, please do not hesitate to contact our founders at justine@poppybarley.com and kendall@poppybarley.com.