MONTEGRANARO
AN ITALIAN HERITAGE
Montegranaro is a town in the middle of the Marche region, which faces both the sea and the mountains. There is a real shoe district here: its inhabitants have grown up breathing the art of handmade shoes. A Made in Italy tradition that has never stopped.
OUR FAMILIES
9 ARTISAN FAMILIES
Children mostly learned from their parents, some even learned from the neighbors: this is the story of an incredible artistic contamination: making shoes by hand. Let's knock on our artisans' doors together, a bit like Jacopo and Enrico did in 2014, when everything started with the first yes, when Velasca was born.
Genesio
He tells us that he started with his wife, Gisella: to begin with they produced uppers; in the 70s there were workshops everywhere in Montegranaro: some sold insoles, some sold leather, some sold uppers, some sold shoestrings. And Genesio and Gisella made their own luck, in their own way.
We passed through Umbria, Tuscany, went to Lazio, we met customers
with samples in hand and took their orders, one by one
Luciano
He started when he was just 10 years old. Luciano has a lot of experience, he tells us that in Montegranaro only shoes were made. When he talks about his job he smiles, he loves what he does.
He also lets on that it’s quite a difficult job, that it often “p***es you off”: to recognise imperfections in shoes and leather you are working on you need experience and patience; but if you're in a hurry, your work will be sloppy.
You don't know Campofilone tagliatelle? They're thin,
handmade tagliatelle. They're well known!
Mariella
Mariella chats to us while she is working on one of our uppers. She's been making shoes for 40 years: her hands are precious. Mariella has always worked on classic men's shoes: She says shoes were simpler a few years ago, but now they’re more complex and more carefully designed. She wouldn't trade her job for anything else.
Here you start and finish shoes, they're entirely handmade.
There's no comparison, these shoes are far more cared for...
Giacomo
Giacomo has breathed in the art of shoemaking since he was a child. He tells us that people from the countryside began working in factories, learning the trade; then in the 70s many of these workmen started their own small company. When he was younger, each workshop was dedicated to a piece of footwear: for transport they used Piaggio Apes, Montegranaro was full of them.
Imagine Montegranaro when I was smaller and I would stay
outdoors to play: every door I saw concealed a shoe workshop!
