Top Manta, an informal name for street hawkers who display their goods on a blanket, will buy shoes, bags, mobile phone cases, clothes and other good from wholesalers and brand them, according to a report in El Pais.
Top Manta's logo is made up of two waves: one represents the materials used, the other the perilous maritime journeys many of the sellers undertook to reach Spain.
The group behind Top Manta, the Popular Trade Union of Street Vendors of Barcelona, known as the Mantero Union, was founded in August 2015 by more than 200 illegal street vendors in the Catalan capital.
According to the group's Facebook page, the union was established with the goal “to defend the rights” of such workers. Mantero is a Spanish term for street sellers, mainly immigrants, who use a blanket as a shop window.
The union, which is in the process of completing all the legal requirements to patent the brand, hopes that the new product will help street sellers avoid counterfeit goods and breaking of the law by selling products illegally, Aziz Faye, spokesman for the group, told El Pais in an interview.