From Italia with Love
By Joe Kinder
It has been a wild ride thus far with traveling, climbing, and shooting video… shooting WAY TOO much video! It’s all for such a great product and outcome however. La Sportiva and I are partnering in a video short for the web on my trip here in Europe. We all know that Europe has the best limestone crags on earth… but should also understand that Europe makes the best climbing shoes too. In particular, Italy and their La Sportiva climbing shoes.
We took the trip to the La
Sportiva offices last week to get some video, cop some shoes, and just make a
random and worthy detour from the normal climbing trip. The plan was set for weeks in advance
and was quite the treat once we arrived.
The employees were very friendly and almost all spoke English (which was
nice, since we don’t speak any Italian).
The décor inside the office is very modern, clean, and everything has the
staple Sportiva black and yellow colors.
We saw how a shoe was made as well. (Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to shoot any video or photos). The week we visited was a week for producing the Cobra. The demand on shoes changes from week to week and the demand is met with a series of very important jobs in the assembly line.
They start with the raw materials
of rubber and leather. The leather
and rubber are cut, sanded to the proper angle and set aside for the next step,
which is the basic booty of the shoe.
The shoe is built from a very specific template, a molded foot known as
a “last” that creates the shape of the shoe. The leather is sewn in regards to the template, the glue is
put on the rubber, the rubber is put on the shoe, and then the shoe is sanded
and the edges are created to perfection.
After the fine-tuning, labels are placed and the shoe is boxed and shipped
off to all of us.
The sequence of events was
fascinating due to the fact that each shoe is made by hand and some require
more materials, craft, and time, (such as the Testarossa) which is one of the
ways they are priced.
The shoe from start to finish was a total manifestation of raw material to a perfect work of functional art. I now have that much more respect for such an incredible product.
The cherry on top of our visit was when I left the offices with the classic two kisses and 8 boxes full of new shoes to attack my 30 some projects with. Thanks again La Sportiva Italy for the tour and I cannot wait to see you next time.
