Each story has a place of origin able to tell its essence. Calpierre s.r.l. It is the social name of the “Calzaturificio De Pascale” founded in Ercolano around 1964, by the determined initiative of its founder, Ciro De Pascale, born in 1935. This business is born in a district whose love for footwear is its true flagship. Much of Calpierre men’s collection is designed and processed completely by hand, through personalized techniques: starting from the crust, the shoes are hand dyed thanks to a unique process with several layers of aniline, so to obtain the desired color; then it is coated with different layers of creams, finishes and waxes: the final result is a unique masterpiece. During the last edition of Micam, we met Ciro Nevano, CEO, second generation in charge, who told us about the important news of his family-lead business.
Ciro Nevano, CEO Calpierre
Let’s start from the beginning: a 53 year-old company lead by two generations, many years have passed… Just like any other family history we share a great passion, that of “making, making well”. A visceral passion for footwear and a natural instinct for leather goods that has become the strength of our family, a common goal that has led us to seek the highest quality in what we do and the constant improvement in production and distribution.
What is the success of your company due to? First of all, it’s due to our foresight in terms of distribution, it is crucial to understand where to head. Secondly, our perseverance in the development of a product whose qualitative strength stands out not only in the choice of materials and manufacturing but also in the study of the utmost comfort for men’s shoes, without giving up the aesthetical canons of beauty.
You are making large investments in distribution. What are your target markets? Yes, our constant effort is worthwhile. Our strongest market is still Italy: we started with the local distribution 47 years ago, then in the 80s the distribution became capillary as it was undertaken region by region. Only at the end of the 90s – early 2000 we started to think the same way in Europe. By adopting a more global vision, we can state today that all of Europe represents our internal market. In these 50 years many things have changed of course, but the numbers are still revealing a rewarding commitment. For a quality product like ours it is difficult to maintain very high numbers in our country because consumption is undoubtedly falling. The moment we Italians left Italy, others came here, first to read the fashion signs – everyone knows that Italy and France are the main reference points – and, in a second moment, to sell. But we did not stop here. After Europe came Japan and China, Russia, the Eastern countries and lastly the United States, where we’ve just entered: we want to face this challenge to the best and, thanks to our competitiveness, made indispensable by the contemporary world, we can do that.
What are your future plans? For some years now we have been focusing on hand dyed items, encountering great satisfaction thanks to skilful operators, the first to have this idea, who support us in this project. A meticulous and careful work that requires only skilled and expert hands. In addition we are also focusing on the use of valuable materials such as ostrich, python, Ayers or ray. To those who ask me if our shoes are mere accessories, I reply that this is not the case. When you fill something with passion you can make it grow into your hands, you can live it. That’s our philosophy, the same we try to convey up to the final consumer. www.calpierre.it
