All Case Studies articles
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ArticleHow a Tuscan startup is helping upcycle leather deadstocks
Zerow is a Tuscan-based marketplace established for the upcycling of fabric and leather leftovers. As the company’s name indicates, the “w” standing for waste, its purpose is to eliminate discarded materials and deadstock by transforming them into a resource. The company was founded by Alessio Troisi and Gabriele Rorandelli, who ...
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ArticleHow an Italian startup is proving to be the perfect fit for leading fashion brands
Measmerize, a startup established to offer sizing solutions for fashion brands, has built up a portfolio of about 40 clients, including high-profile fashion houses, thanks to customized AI algorithms proposing size and fit recommendations to end-users. The startup, which currently has a staff of 12 people, rapidly gained traction thanks ...
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ArticleId.Eight plans to double its sales and is open to new investors
Id.Eight, an Italian sneaker startup that uses waste materials, is aiming to double its revenues this year and continue expanding internationally. In 2024, A/Impact, a venture capital firm, backed by Avanzi - Sostenibilità per Azioni and the asset manager Etica SGR, decided to invest €350,000 in the company for its ...
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ArticleHow Stanbee uses innovation to cut component costs, improve athletic shoe performance
The US shoe component manufacturer Stanbee uses a patented foaming process to infuse nitrogen gas into the polymer core of its Nitro line of heel counters and toe boxes, replacing part of the core with gas to bring down costs and turn out a product that is lighter in weight ...
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ArticleChina is expected to see a significant decline in its exports as a result of the trade war
The introduction of higher import tariffs by the US is expected to lead to a significant decline in China’s market share in global footwear exports, but the Asian powerhouse will remain the world’s leading manufacturer for the foreseeable future as the efficiency of its manufacturing base continues to attract buyers, ...
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ArticleHow Expo Riva Schuh is seeking to bolster the visitor’s experience
After the rebranding of Gardabags, the segment of the Italian trade fair Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags that focuses on bags, Expo Riva Schuh has changed its logo, but maintained its claim “the fair that moves the world”, and will undertake an in-depth study to bolster the visitor’s experience and ...
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ArticleHow Cortina took advantage of an ‘incredible opportunity’ to shake up its private label business
For Cortina, its private label business has been at the core of the company’s operations since the company was set up in 1950. After decades of expanding its design, sourcing, sales and logistics capabilities, the Belgian footwear designer and distributor recently decided to shake up its private label operations with ...
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ArticleHow a dropshipper enables foreign footwear companies to enter the US market
“The US is a big retail machine that will continue expanding thanks to population growth. It’s possible for a fresh brand from Europe to enter the US,” explains Joseph (Joe) Trybulec, the owner of Trybulec Enterprises, which enables brands to work with leading e-commerce platforms in the US. “The US ...
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ArticleA way out of the trade dispute: Is Cambodia the new Vietnam of the footwear industry?
With the current trade dispute between China and the US, the disturbance shows no signs of abating any time soon.
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ArticleBrazilian shoemakers hope Trump will help boost their sales to the US
As Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the US on Jan. 20, Brazilian shoemakers hope to benefit from a possible reduction in shipments of Chinese footwear to the world’s largest market in value in the wake of higher import duties. During his electoral campaign, Trump, who ...
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ArticleHow Murcia’s shoemakers are exiting the 2024 jubilee year and preparing for 2025
After celebrating in 2024 the jubilee of Caravaca de la Cruz, the fifth holiest city of Catholic Christianity with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Camaleño, Calzia, a consortium of shoemakers located in Spain’s southeastern region of Murcia, is focusing on its next challenges. These include managing a slowdown in ...
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ArticleHow an Italian 3D scanner manufacturer has stormed the footwear industry
The startup Covision Media decided to initially focus on the footwear industry to commercialize its 3D scanner developed in Bressanone, near the northern Italian town of Bolzano. The company, which was founded on Feb. 9, 2024, after having spun off from the technology group Covision Lab, currently has a slate ...
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ArticleHow a crowd funding platform is helping footwear companies raise money
The Italian footwear companies Fessura, DIS and Steve’s as well as dropout, a retailer of luxury apparel and sneakers, have in common that they are currently, or have been, raising funds through the Italian crowdfunding platform Mamacrowd, which is owned by the asset management company Azimut. Other companies working with ...
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ArticleHow an Italian online platform aims to give more visibility to local fashion stores
JustinShop is an Italian startup that created an app allowing users to book fashion items, such as a piece of apparel or a pair of shoes, with the option to receive them at home by courier or pick them up at a nearby shop. This may not seem new for ...
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ArticleCompostable sneakers are inching closer to the mass market
In late April, Puma announced that it would make a commercial version of its Re:Suede 2.0 compostable sneaker. The brand had created 500 pairs of its Re:Suede sneaker in 2021 as an experimental project, then asked volunteers to wear them for half a year to test comfort and durability. Now, ...
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ArticleHow Belledonne is achieving sneaker success by revisiting retro styles
With a claim as bold as “We do sneakers. We do them well”, Antonin Chabanne and Mikael Leo, who established Belledonne Paris in 2018, were setting their sights high. Since their company name derives from the Belledonne range of mountains in the Dauphiné Alps of southeast France near Grenoble ...
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ArticleHow Gerli is relaunching Camel Active
After HC Footwear, a unit of Hamm Market Solutions which held the Camel Active license for footwear and handbags, filed for bankruptcy in May 2022, the license was taken over for seven years by the German footwear company Schuh-Import und Export Gerli in November of the same year. “The previous ...
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ArticleHow an iconic Italian footwear brand went from rags to riches
In just a few years, Valleverde’s turnover has increased more than twenty-fold, surging from €1.5 million in 2015 to €32 million in 2023. Last year, the top line was up by 28 percent compared with 2022. In 2015, Elvio Silvagni took one of the best-known Italian shoe brands out of ...
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ArticleHow Fibbl aims to reduce returns, increase conversion rates with 3D models, AR technology
The Stockholm-based startup Fibbl states that its photorealistic 3D models and augmented reality technology for e-commerce can help footwear brands using its services tackle problems with high returns while also increasing conversion rates. Founded in 2021 by Henrik Arlestig and Johan Bertilsson, two childhood friends with over a decade of ...
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ArticleHow returns can be an opportunity to boost sales
Returns represent a significant cost for online retailers and a scourge for the environment. In the US alone, e-commerce customers returned 17 percent of goods for a total value of $816 billion (€754bn) in 2022, according to the National Retail Federation. The figure is even higher in the EU, where ...
