Barcelona street vendors, or manteros, are known for selling unlicensed or counterfeit copies of shoes and handbags. Now, a cooperative of street vendors—the Popular Union of Street Vendors—has created its own brand of ethical streetwear through a shop in Barcelona and online. Its first offering is a line of sneakers sold under the brand name Top Manta. The cooperative’s members are mostly migrant, African, and undocumented people. Profits will be used to help improve living conditions of the cooperative’s members and their families and to fund the pursuit of legal status for the street vendors. The cooperative’s manufacturing jobs help fulfill the requirement that to become legal residents, immigrants must have a work contract for at least a year. The Top Manta name and logo design come from the blanket, or manta, that Barcelona street vendors typically use to merchandise their products. The wave-like logo also represents the waves that many street vendors faced when making the journey to Spain in small inflatable boats. One motivation for the initiative was to reduce street vendor suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, when tourists stayed home, sales plunged, and vendors were not eligible for unemployment benefits or government support. The Top Manta brand aims to compete with brands like Nike. A spokesperson for the brand expressed optimism that consumers both inside and outside Spain would choose to buy Top Manta sneakers instead of supporting multinational corporations that exploit people in emerging economies.

If the cooperative chooses to sell Top Manta sneakers directly to customers outside Spain, what factors does it need to consider?