1994-95 - Iñaki Sebastián starts to repair his own mallets. At that time he was studying in Oporto with Miquel Bernat at ESMAE. Back then, in Spain and Portugal it was quite difficult and expensive to have adequate mallets, for which people had to look for them specially in the U.S.A. and Holland (Robert van Sice started manufacturing his mallets just a few years prior and Miquel Bernat also worked with him at the Rotterdam Conservatory).
1995 - He came back to San Sebastián —where he finished his percussion studies— to try to develop the manufacturing of mallets. At the same time he balanced his work with playing with the Bilbao Symphonic Orchestra till 2002.
1996 - Iñaki Sebastián MALLETS is the first professional Spanish manufacturer of mallets, and the enterprise has obtained evident results and prestige in Spain and Portugal. The first trips to France are confirmed, firstly to Lyon, with the help of Julien Bourgeois (at that time principal timpanist of the Euskadi Symphonic Orchestra and now principal timpanist of the Montecarlo Symphonic Orchestra) to meet with Christian Hamouy and Georges Van Gucht (founder of the Percussions de Strasbourg group). After that he arrives in Paris to meet with Silvio Gualda and Jaques Delécuse. He also presents the mallets in the summer course in Clermont Ferrand.
1997 - The enterprise starts a collaboration with Pustjens Percussion Products (Holland) to be distributed in all of Europe. At the same time the collaboration is confirmed with Bergerault (till now) and Musical Rivera for Spanish distribution.
1998 - The enterprise attends PASIC 98 in Orlando (FL) U.S.A.
1999 - Iñaki Sebastián attends the PASIC convention in Columbus (OH) U.S.A. There, an agreement with the Japanese enterprise Nonaka Boeki is reached to distribute his mallets in Japan.
2000 - PASIC Dallas (TX) U.S.A. First serious contact with Black Swamp.
2001 - PASIC Nashville (TN) U.S.A. The enterprise confirms its collaboration with Black Swamp.
2002 - PASIC Columbus (OH) U.S.A., sharing the booth with Black Swamp. (Unfortunately, collaboration with them ended two years later due to the impossible EURO-DOLLAR exchange rate. We still have great memories regarding the collaboration with Eric Sooy.)
2003 - ELITE MALLETS is created as a new concept of sound, an important evolution after almost ten years manufacturing mallets.
Iñaki Sebastián also travels to Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, but worldwide prestige was achieved especially after these 5 years showing his work in the U.S.A. Besides Japan, sales and collaborations in Asia and Australia arrive: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Australia...
2005 - Creation of the Infopercusión website, a Spanish website with all the information about percussions in Spain and also in Latin America in the past years. Collaboration begins with the distributor TICO for Spain.
2006 - He starts to work with Korogi marimbas in Japan.
2008 - Inauguration of the Percushop physical store for the import and sale of instruments such as Marimba One, Yamaha, Vancore, Bergerault, Musser, Studio 49.
2010 - We also help to open Percustudio in Portugal.
2011 - After the earthquake in Japan, the collaboration with Korogi is affected and Iñaki Sebastián decides that it is time to reevaluate the best way to maintain his enterprise and its activity.
2012 - The priority now is to sell directly to the people, making an ambitious promo at FB. For different reasons, Iñaki Sebastián cancels the collaboration with Korogi.
2013- It is time to work directly with the people, solely with small shops and small distributors. And to rest.
…
2017 Iñaki Sebastián starts a collaboration with Andrew Lau in Hong Kong.
2018 He decides to start a new way of selling his mallets by putting the sales in the hands of percussionists, percussion professionals. He confirms the opening of Percushop China and Percushop Japan; other stores in different countries are in the process of negotiation.
The new online Percushop store created in April 2018 allows branches to be opened in each country in which we will be able to find a percussionist interested in promoting our work, opening a line of business that already works with solvency in Portugal (Percustudio), China, and soon in Japan, where people know and value extraordinarily our mallets.
2019 New shops opened: brasil.percushop.com/pt_BR/ argentina.percushop.com/es_AR/ finland.percushop.com/fi_FI/ ecuador.percushop.com/es_EC/ germany.percushop.com/de_DE/ italy.percushop.com/it_IT/ mexico.percushop.com/es_MX/
We started to work in a new way so that percussionists from all over the world can enjoy our exclusive and unique concept of sound.
We thank all those who have helped us in our almost 25 years manufacturing mallets. We hope to celebrate it with you in less than one year.