FLY FLOT, company based in Calvisano ( BS ), specialized in the field of comfortable footwear, has been focusing on the wellbeing of those professionals that, in the food & beverage industry, spend a lot time standing.
The R&D department has launched brand-new anti-fatigue, safety shoes. With a new professional model purposefully designed for cooks and restaurateurs who spend their days standing, Fly Flot is getting ready to join a global business that involves 34 million chefs, for an appraised value amounting to about €5 million. In the limelight at the latest edition of Micam, together with the 2020 Spring/Summer collection, the innovative product – clamoured for by industry operators – is the result of years of research and testing in the corporate in-house laboratories: it features a safety, rigid toe cap (in resin) that, unlike the traditional footwear used in the food industry, effectively protects the foot, by wrapping it, without squeezing, thus respecting its anatomic structure and guaranteeing a relaxing effect to the whole body.
Technical, resistant, lightweight and washable, the materials employed are elastic on the instep, while moulded and stabilized in the upper’s remaining part. The sole is, without fail, shock-absorbing, anatomic, self-modelling and slip-proof. “We have managed,” explained Tarcisio Migliorati, Fly Flot’s sales manager, when we visited the corporate stand during the fair, “to give life to a safety product, fully compliant with the EN ISO standards, pleasant to wear when standing all day, provided with interchangeable insoles that can be either replaced or sanitized. The elastic part on the instep is designed to prevent liquids leaking into the shoe; the latter, as it lacks laces, features internally a peculiar 3D mesh fabric for a new breathability. Innovative in their lightness, these shoes use highly durable synthetic materials: the Evopel patent (that stands for “leather evolution”) ensures top-notch softness, water resistance and mechanical strength standards, far superior to leather.
Available in two colours, black and white, the safety shoe for the food industry is sold online as well
The feedback to the tests carried out in some restaurants was truly positive.” The attention of the company is focused, as always, on quality and environmental safeguard. “We can safely say,” stated Tarcisio Migliorati, “that our product lasts twice as long (up to five years of wearability) and pollutes far less. As a matter of fact, if you extend the life cycle of a shoe, there is a marked decrease both in terms of pollution caused by the disposal of the used article and of costs for the end consumer.” A philosophy seemingly at odds with the corporate growth goals. “We aim at winning over the customers’ loyalty, encouraging them to rely on Fly Flot and to try out new models.” The turnover in 2018 amounted to 18 million euro, and the prospects are positive for 2019 as well. Exports account for 40% of the revenues, the latter increased in the first half of 2019 by 13%. Exports have registered a strategic rise, reaching peaks of 80% in the UK, 30% in the Scandinavian countries and in Canada, 40% in Australia. Fly Flot’s roots are tightly grounded in Italy, the nation that hosts 90% of the production, equal to 1,8 million pairs. With a keen eye for product innovation, as the 6% of the turnover is invested in R&D projects. www.flyflot.it