The hands behind the shoes.

We name the hands each pair passes through. Four people in Monte Urano, and a few craftspeople.

A small shoe workshop with its door open on a stone street
Ottavino designer, a woman with silver hair

Elena Vitali

Designer and workshop owner · Monte Urano, Marche · 28 years in the craft

“It isn’t enough for a child’s shoe to be beautiful. First you have to listen to what the foot wants; beauty comes after.”

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She grew up in the workshop her father, Bruno Vitali, founded in 1966; as a child she played with the leather offcuts from the cutting bench. After studying shoe design in Milan, she came back to Monte Urano. She draws Ottavino’s patterns with feedback from paediatric physiotherapists.

Signature work
The Salvia pattern: redrawn three times using the measurements of the Founding Families’ children.
Models they work on
A master shoemaker, an older man with a grey moustache

Marco Properzi

Pattern maker and lasting master · Monte Urano, Marche · 37 years in the craft

“The last doesn’t lie. If the foot wants room, we make it wide.”

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He has been making patterns for children’s shoes for thirty-five years. He decides how a pair’s sole will sit on the last. Our boots and sneakers are all assembled at his bench.

Signature work
Neve’s hollowed-out sole: the same grip, 22 grams lighter.
Hand-stitching master Rita Marconi in the workshop

Rita Marconi

Hand-stitching master · Monte Urano, Marche · 32 years in the craft

“The stitching stays inside, where no one sees it. But the foot feels it.”

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One of the longest-serving craftspeople in the workshop. She does Salvia’s flower perforations and edge stitching, and Nuvola’s turned seam. Stitching a pair takes about two hours; she calls those two hours “the quiet part of the shoe”.

Signature work
Nuvola’s one-piece upper, with no inner seams.
Models they work on
Illustrator Giulia Rossetti, painting by hand

Giulia Rossetti

Illustrator, hand painting and box design · Fermo, Marche · 7 years in the craft

“A box should outlive the shoes. That’s what I draw it for.”

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She met Elena Vitali while illustrating children’s books. She hand-paints every pair of Giardino, and she drew all seven box concepts. A garden her daughter drew became Giardino’s first design.

Signature work
The hand painting on Giardino, and the Casa, Passaporto and Vagone No.1 boxes.
Models they work on

See the workshop up close

The six stops, and who works at each one: in How they’re made.

How they’re madeEvents

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