Melissa Story

Melissa was born in 1979, with an inspiration straight from the sea. On the feet of French Riviera fishermen, we found the embryo that gave origin to the Aranha model. In little time, it caught on with Brazilians and became one of the most popular shoes around. In the last decade, Melissa has produced over 32 million pairs of the Aranha, which are now sold in more than 70 countries.

Melissa is not just art, fashion and design. It is also about sustainability. Melissa shoes are made with its own trademark material, MELFLEX™, a type of PVC that is 100% recyclable, flexible, resistant and comfortable. Melissa products do not contain any component of animal origin, or go through animal-testing throughout its entire process of production. Today, its iconic jelly shoes are now officially registered as vegan-friendly by The Original Vegan Society.

Melissa was one of the first few brands in the world to introduce collaborative collections. Designers that the brand has collaborated with in the past include Jean-Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Zaha Hadid, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Vivienne Westwood, Jason Wu and Jeremy Scott, among many others.

The Melissa brand is owned by Grendene SA, a public listed company headquartered in Brazil. Grendene is one of the world’s largest shoe producers and was founded by the Grendene Bartelle brothers in 1971. Today, both brothers continue to be active as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Grendene SA. Collectively, the Grendene Bartelle family owns 70% of the company’s shares. Apart from being commercially viable – the Melissa brand is today, one of the world’s most recognised in ladies fashion footwear, Grendene SA also prides itself in incorporating sustainability in every stage of production. Since 2011, its Sustainable Development Department consisting of 32 professionals, has dedicated themselves to establish sustainable operations by recycling, avoiding waste and optimising resources.