Headquartered in Prato, PraneM is a young firm yet featuring a well-established know-how and extensive experience in the footwear industry.
Fabrics, non-woven articles, foams, films, midsoles, lining, and much more. PraneM manages to provide its clientele with an ample range of top-quality, innovative products, designed to fully meet the footwear industry’s requirements and demands. Furthermore, in the last few years, the Prato-based company has decided to turn its attention to the safety field, with a keen eye for environmental safeguard and for sustainability-related issues. Gabriele Diddi, PraneM’s founder and owner, outlined some of the most interesting solutions developed by the Tuscan enterprise.
Your family has acquired a long-standing experience in the footwear sector. Can you tell us more on the subject?
My father established his company (Diddi & Gori) back in 1956, a firm specialized in the making of fabrics, non-woven items and foams for the whole footwear market, thus ranging from classic models to sneakers, from hiking shoes to more technical and safety solutions. On the other hand, I launched PraneM in 2011.
What is the reference sector?
Our initial goal was to gain a strong foothold in the technical footwear segment, focusing mainly on midsole articles, including both cemented and sewing midsoles. Once strengthened our core business, we have turned our attention to the development of more innovative, unique products. As in the case, for example, of the processing of polyurethane foams, fabrics and latex foams, all designed for conductive solutions. The latest innovations concern the film + fabric for fussbett insoles.
Can you explain more in detail the features of this latest innovation?
Its name is Fus Revolution, a special product featuring its own specific website where to find the necessary information. It is a conductive fabric with a PU barrier film, the perfect solution for the manufacturing of polyurethane injected, removable fussbett insoles. An article conceived to meet the requirements of top-notch safety footwear, especially in the electronic field and in working contexts that require excellent performance levels when it comes to conduction and electrostatic discharge dispersion. As a matter of fact, Fus Revolutions manages to dissipate effectively static electricity, thus ensuring the utmost protection not only to workers, but also to the devices they are handling. As in the case of microchips, the latter used for TV sets and laptops, that can be easily damaged even by barely detectable discharges. A solution that fully complies with the ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) standards, that is, a classification system that divides materials into three categories – insulating, antistatic, conductive -, usually marked by a yellow label featuring a hand, visible on plenty of safety shoes. Fus Revolution’s structure can adjust easily to the foot shape, ensuring maximum comfort and flexibility, and is made with a conductive yarn in either steel, carbon or silver.
Your firm provides the clientele with cutting-edge products.
Absolutely. Our comprehensive catalogue ranges from foams, tapes to films, from fabrics up to non-woven articles. A special mention goes to ElaTherm, a product launched on the market four/five years ago and that is now starting to arouse the clientele’s interest. It is a lining designed to guarantee first-rate performances in terms of thermal insulation: a material featuring hollow fibres, just like other solutions available on the market, whose distinctive trait lies in the presence, inside its structure, of microspheres. Said addition ensures, on the one hand, higher flexibility and, on the other, it results in a sort of double-glazing effect that improves thermal insultation properties. After all, air is the most effective insulation agent. With regard to our product, the air trapped in the fibres is released, while the air in the microspheres can only cool down, but it can’t be replaced by cool air.
What about the other benefits guaranteed by this material? Is it suitable for technical apparel as well?
Besides ensuring higher-than-average thermal insulation performances, ElaTherm is also easier to process compared to other similar solutions available on the market. In other words, it does not flake off when used, much to footwear manufacturers’ satisfaction. Moreover, said material has been designed to provide top-notch properties when it comes to comfort, elasticity, breathability and energy return. In short, it ensures plenty of benefits, not only from a technical point of view. As for its application options, it has been specifically conceived to meet the requirements of the technical and winter footwear sector.
Gabriele Diddi
The PraneM’s booth at Lineapelle