Last year, Portuguese footwear honoured Portuguese culture with an artistic recreation of eight of the most famous Portuguese paintings. In 2023, it is time for one Portuguese to give body to an industry that year after year reinvents itself. Marcelino Sambé has just been selected as the personality of the year, the Martha de la Cal prize for the foreign press, awarded by the Foreign Press Association in Portugal. A recognition he views "with great happiness” because it allows him to achieve such a popularity level by just "doing what I do”.

He started dancing quite early, at the age of four or five. "I always thought I was different from other kids. But whenever I danced, I felt that everyone else’s eyes were on me differently. I felt special”. From there to the Alto da Loba Community Centre was a leap. It was at the centre that he caught the attention of his mentors, who took him to the Lisbon Conservatory, where he started taking part in national and international competitions.

At the age of 15, he took part in the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, which had the director of the Royal Ballet School on its jury, who granted him direct entry to the school. "When I arrived at the Royal, I had many doubts about my talent. I was very young, and the environment was sterile, very different from Portugal. There was no idea that everyone could dance. There were around 40 of us dancers, all with carefully crafted bodies”. Later, "I began discovering the English style, much more focused on interpretation”.

Two years later, he was invited to be part of the cast of the Royal Ballet, where he has been for 10 seasons. Marcelino Sambé is the new ambassador of Portuguese Footwear in international markets.

Under the lens of Frederico Martins, styling by Fernando Bastos Pereira and choreography by Daniel Gorjão, the new Portuguese Shoes campaign is an initiative of the Bioshoes4all project, and is supported by the PRR (Programme for Recovery and Resilience).

The campaign was photographed in the great Porto, recently elected the best city destination in the world, specifically at Casa da Música and Piscina das Marés, one of the most recognized works of the architect Siza Vieira.