Why does it make a lot of sense that ABRA is the new creative director of Camper and CamperLab?

When Abraham Ortuño, founder of Abra, was named the new global creative director of Camper and CamperLab last week, the news seemed not only logical but inevitable. It seems that even before it was officially announced, the position had his name on it. Ortuño belongs to an increasingly rare breed: designers who really know how to make shoes. And in a company like Camper, which has been doing just that since the 1970s, that matters, a lot.

Ortuño has spent years orbiting the fashion system from a very specific place: footwear as a conceptual object, and as an essential part of the fashion and trend circuit. Before launching his label Abra in 2019, he worked designing accessories and shoes for houses such as Loewe, Jacquemus, Givenchy, JW Anderson and Coperni. Many of the designs he created there have become viral pieces—not only in terms of sales, but also across social media.

Throughout that trajectory, which has ultimately led him to where he is today, he has helped shape a broader understanding that footwear is no longer just a functional product. It can also become the central element of a look or styling—even the protagonist of a brand’s storytelling. Coperni’s Bridge Boots, Jacquemus’ double heels or JW Anderson’s reinterpretation of the nautical shoe respond to that same logic: pieces that work just as well on the runway as they do on Instagram.

Like ABRA’s work, Camper’s experience has always been that of a brand that seems more like a laboratory for new designs than a conventional shoe retailer. The brand has built a very particular identity within footwear: a blend of industrial design, open and fun Mediterranean character, and the functionality of an everyday shoe. Its icons—the Pelotas, the Twins, the Runner—have never been just sneakers. They have been authentic design exercises for today’s people.

In that sense, the creation of CamperLab in recent years has been a logical step in the brand’s evolution: a space where that experimentation could be amplified within the fashion circuit, even with a presence in Paris. And the challenge now is clear, although it already was with Achilles Ion Gabriel: to connect that creative laboratory with the brand’s global product. That’s where Abraham Ortuño fits in perfectly.

The Alicante-based designer represents something interesting in the current landscape: a generation of creatives who move naturally between industry and authorship. His brand Abra—which has been showing in Paris every season for several years now—explores absurd shapes, unexpected volumes, and a certain surrealist humor applied to the object. But his training is also deeply linked to the Spanish footwear industry, especially the ecosystem of his native Alicante.

That duality is precisely what Camper needs. Because running Camper is not just about imagining concepts or constructing an aesthetic narrative: it also involves designing shoes that will be produced by the millions.

With his arrival, Ortuño also takes on the creative direction of both Camper and CamperLab, which reveals the company’s strategy quite well. Rather than separating the two worlds, the intention seems to be to build a coherent narrative that highlights the value of the product and also serves to build bridges between global culture and fashion, promoting collaborations with designers and brands around the world. Camper will continue to be the accessible global brand; CamperLab, the space where design can push the boundaries a little further. But both will have to speak the same language, I suppose.

Ortuño’s appointment also says a lot about the current state of Spanish talent. For years, many of the country’s most interesting designers developed their careers within international fashion houses, often with little local visibility. Now the opposite is beginning to happen: more and more Spanish brands are looking for profiles capable of operating within the global system without losing their own sensibility.

Ortuño clearly belongs to that generation. He is a designer trained within the international circuit, with his own language and, above all, with the technical knowledge necessary to run a brand that produces millions of pairs a year.

If you want to see our interview with ABRA in HIGHXTAR #2, head to the store.