Birigui, Brazil – You might say that to children, fashion is mainly lots of fun and colors. After all, despite the aesthetics of clothing design, children want to turn their clothes into toys. Keeping an eye on that playful universe, the shoe industry in Brazil seeks inspiration from comic strips, TV series and cartoons to help bring joy to kids when it’s time to put on their sports shoes, school shoes and sandals.

Specializing in the customization of children’s shoes, Indústria de Calçados Pixote has 230 employees and manufactures 3,000 pairs of shoes a day. The company is located in Birigui, a city known as the Brazilian capital of children’s shoes. Of its total production, 30,000-40,000 pairs are customized each month using Roland’s SOLJET XC-540 54” digital printer/cutter. The SOLJET is the third Roland machine owned by Pixote since the company was introduced to Roland solutions at a digital printing trade show in São Paulo.

Indústria de Calçados Pixote was founded in 1991 by Valdecir Fagundes Prates. Four years later partners Eldir Paulo Scarpim and Oscar Fernandes Correia and brothers Dércio Varoni, Sebastião Varoni and Maria Inez Varoni joined the company. Today, Indústria de Calçados Pixote is managed by brothers Dércio and Sebastião Varoni.

Before acquiring its SOLJET XC-540, Pixote owned two Roland VersaCAMMs: a VP-300 and an SP-300, which were sadly lost after a fire destroyed most of Pixote’s industrial facilities. With the plant’s reconstruction came the opportunity to modernize their equipment and increase production speed.

“Other manufacturers do not offer equipment of this caliber, nor is their color resolution as accurate,” remembers Dércio Varoni, Pixote’s owner. “Not only is Roland’s print definition better, but it also offers more capabilities, such as being able to run thicker materials,” he adds. The SOLJET XC-540 operates with a maximum thickness of 1.0 mm for printing.

These features are critical market differentiators for Pixote. Since 1996, Pixote has customized children’s shoes for multinational retailers C&A, an arrangement which has been very important to Pixote’s business development.

These days, Pixote finds its clients are demanding increasing precision in shoe finishing. “Customers are very particular about details which requires that we have very strict quality control,” explains Dércio. “I bought the XC-540 to meet the needs of my customers such as C&A, who sell children’s shoes throughout Brazil.”

Since acquiring the XC-540 in June, 2008, customization of children’s shoes led the company’s 15% growth in production. The customized designs are based on characters such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Hello Kitty and Spider-Man, winning Pixote many young customers ranging from babies to 10-year-olds.

In a difficult international economic climate, the Brazilian shoe industry still has a lot of steam. Shoe retailers there closed 2008 with an average of 5% growth and virtually no remaining inventory.