A True Italian Story

Sorry for the Berlusconi-like title, nothing in common. After four years maybe it's time to make a little history and a summary of this meritorious activity. Around year 2001, using my skill and experience in CAD, I started designing the first pair of slip-on shoes. It was just for hobby, but in the end they looked cool to me, so I decided to publish them, and then this web site was set up since may 2002. Due to the remarkable success, I was convinced that there could be a market, and by the end of 2003 I prepared a collection of samples of boots and pumps, thanks to a firm from Parabiago (nearby Milan), which, after some insistence, sent me the goods "on one's word". You can see these gorgeous models on the cover from my home page. Unfortunately the first customer, this not Italian but Mexican, turned out to be a professional swindler and paid with a check that in the end proved to be false.

Although I keep receiving e-mails asking how to order these shoes, I could never sell a pair via Internet, nor find a shop or a distributor seriously interested in retailing them. I sold the remaining pairs to friends and relatives. The firm that produced the samples, by unanimous consent of excellent quality, was owned by Finpart financial group (holding brands like Cerruti, Frette, Moncler, Marina Yachting, Andrea Pfister and Colette). This holding went recently bankrupt, leaving a hundreds million gap, with accusations of rigging the market and fraudulent bankruptcy, and dragged in the storm also the Banca Popolare of Intra, that "generously" lavished its subscribers' money to knit the accounts. Probably those qualified craftsmen that made my shoes (which however I regularly paid for) are now unemployed. The usual "tricky guys of the neighbourhood" made other innocent victims. Another well known story, a true Italian story.