Donny and Mark
PARCERO was founded in 2019 by Donny and Mark.
Donny was born on the Colombian Caribbean island of San Andres. In 2015, he moved to Medellín to study graphic design. From the beginning, his biggest dream was to start his own fashion label. His idea was to promote the products via Instagram and later open his own small shop in Medellín. Selling through an online store doesn't currently play a significant role in Colombia.
Mark is from Stuttgart and worked as a photographer for many years. Not wanting to stand still, he set out to find a new challenge. He gained his first experience in e-commerce by reselling products. But it didn't quite spark his passion. When you're selling other people's products, you're not fully invested – he needed something of his own, but he wasn't a designer. It was just then that he met Donny and learned that Donny wanted to start his own fashion label. It was a perfect match.
THE BEGINNINGS
We quickly agreed that we wanted to focus on underwear . Most of the underwear available on the market is standard fare in boring colors. We don't want to completely reinvent men's underwear, but rather impress with design and outstanding quality, bringing the South American lifestyle to Europe. Our Parceros are usually cut to fit very closely, giving our customers a sexy look. The materials we use all come from Colombia and Peru and feel incredibly soft against the skin.
Quality is paramount in every one of our products. Our goal is not to mass-produce underwear, but rather to create unique and special underwear that our customers can wear with pride.
We benefit from the fact that Medellín is the Latin American capital of the textile industry . Many large and small manufacturers and labels are based in the City of Eternal Spring. It's called that because its proximity to the equator gives it a consistently mild climate year-round. At an altitude of 1,500 meters, however, it's quite high, so it's not as extremely hot as in the tropics. When people think of Medellín, drug cartels and Pablo Escobar inevitably come to mind. But the city has undergone an incredible transformation in recent years. Many young people move there to study or find work. While crime is still a significant issue—there are neighborhoods where you shouldn't go alone, day or night—it's nothing like the situation in the 1990s.