LIFE SHOES Srl was born in 2003 thanks to its brilliant founder Mauro Vicinanza; now it is a leading company of the Italian footwear sector, internationally
renowned for its products, which embody unique values that characterize Italian manufacturing, like quality and attention to details.
Passion for craftsmanship, top quality materials and utmost attention to style issues. These are the cornerstones of Life Shoes, based in Salerno, which since almost twenty years has conquered markets around the world with “all-Italian taste” women’s shoes. The fresh and youthful appeal of each model expresses a timeless elegance, well anchored to the values of tradition but with an eye on the future.
Represented by its second generation, the company is now managed by, Valentina and Marco Vicinanza, who care about any management and stylistic issue. We met Valentina at the latest edition of Micam and asked her to tell us about her company, characterized by a typical Neapolitan feel.
Valentina Vicinanza, how was the company born? Life Shoes was founded in 2003 by my father, Mauro, who wanted to undertake a great initiative thanks to the experience gained by working in an artisan shoe shop in the Salerno area. Here, he was able to discover the secrets of Italian manufacturing renown all over the world, that master shoemakers are very jealous of and pass down from generation to generation. This experience was an opportunity to assimilate a truly unique notional background, which he then knew how to spread within the company as well as to my brother and me. We are very proud of this heritage, that we now try to enhance and to transmit to our products.
Your twentieth anniversary is very close. How has your business evolved over nearly two decades? We have experienced a strong expansion, starting from the domestic and European markets that have gradually grown involving international countries: thanks to an attractive look and an innovative style along with top-quality excellent materials, our products have gained significant success on a large scale and today we have customers from Kenya to Singapore, from South Africa to Australia. Following the health emergency, a slowdown was recorded on the Russian and Eastern European markets only, like Lithuania, Poland, Azerbaijan. We would like to consolidate these markets again and are taking targeted action to reach this aim.
How can you describe your production and sales network? We produce women shoes only with partner companies who work for us exclusively; we follow up every production phase, starting from the stylistic projects that we develop according to customer’s needs. We even supply materials directly. As soon as the sample is ready and approved, we start the production, of which we carefully follow up every step until the final delivery to the customer. We offer a 360 ° ad hoc service, considering that the creation of each model is controlled from the design phase up to the final sale. We almost exclusively produce summer models due to the fact that our reference markets are almost located in the southern hemisphere: when summer ends here, it is about to begin there, so we work continuously on the same season. Despite this, every year we also produce a reduced sample collection for the winter.
You have gained a good positioning in the shoe industry thanks to your style and your materials’ quality Yes, it’s true. Over time, we have specialized in espadrilles made of natural and high-quality materials: for the upper, we select high-end goat and goat leathers from Spain or northern Italy as well as natural fabrics, that are very breathable, such as cotton or linen, while for the wedge we use cork, which makes the shoe light, performing and able to cushion shocks, covered with natural jute. In addition, to ensure additional comfort during the fit, our insoles are padded.
Sustainability is a big issue nowadays. What is your commitment in this field? For some models, we have recently committed to using recyclable raw materials or materials made from recycled fabrics or PET mixed with virgin cotton, with great satisfaction: the technical characteristics of breathability and resistance remain unchanged and the awareness of significantly contributing to the reduction of the environmental impact adds a big value. We have also begun to use superb recycled leathers with characteristics equivalent of those of traditional leather; we had an excellent result.