At the post-war shoe factory, four grandchildren with degrees in design, languages, economics and computer engineering bring together Goodyear welting, bespoke shoemaking, trainers and innovation. All under the 100% Made in Italy label. Arsutoria School has helped drive the company’s innovation process.
There is a classroom in Via Ippolito Nievo, Milan, where people who already work during the week come in on Saturday mornings. Some have years of experience behind them, perhaps with children to raise. Like Silvia Baroli: a mother, pattern-maker, and for over ten years a worker at the family factory in Gargallo, in the province of Novara (once known as ‘the second Vigevano’). She has enrolled on Arsutoria School’s ‘Saturday Shoe Pattern-Making Course’. The question arises naturally: why study for a trade you already practise?
TRAINING DRIVES INNOVATION
Silvia holds a degree in Design and Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, and has been working in the company since 2013, dealing with pattern-making, leather dyeing and finishing. In the factory, she learnt by observing, trying and making mistakes. Something was missing, however: technical depth, the principles of pattern-making, and clear guidance on how to translate tradition and bring it into dialogue with the new machinery that was, in the meantime, being introduced to enrich and innovate the production line. The Saturday course – a solution designed specifically for those already working full-time – provided her with rules and a method. From then on, Cesare Baroli’s processes sped up and, above all, became replicable. Without having to start from scratch with every new request.
Then came Covid. And with Covid, a realisation: not even those who had always distinguished themselves through excellence in men’s formal footwear could continue to ignore the trainer. So Silvia enrolled in a second Arsutoria training course, this time online. Once again, the importance of flexible courses tailored for those who cannot be absent from the factory comes to the fore. Today, the company is able to design and produce high-quality sneaker collections as well.
WHERE TRADITION BEGINS
Many Italian footwear companies could tell a story similar to that of the Cesare Baroli shoe factory: the founder seizing the opportunities of the post-war period, the growth of the business, the children and then the grandchildren leading the change. It is true. Except that here, history does not function as a mere narrative; it acts as a driving force. And to understand how, we must take a step back, all the way to 1947.
Post-war, one man, one challenge: Cesare Baroli set up a small leather-cutting business in Gargallo, in northern Piedmont, which at the time boasted a thriving community of master shoemakers. Over the years, the company grew. It was precisely those historic workshops in the area that provided the foundation of the craft. His three sons – Pietro, Savio and Lauro – joined the business, and the operation expanded from cutting alone to the production of complete footwear, experimenting with the most established techniques, culminating in the Goodyear welting process. This involves double-stitching the sole to the welt – the strip of leather that runs along the shoe’s perimeter and binds the upper to the sole, both made from pure Italian leather.
To put it another way: a Goodyear shoe is for life; it can be resoled. It is a men’s classic, but also a production philosophy. No consumerism, just the deliberate purchase of a product to cherish. At the same time, during those years, collaborations began with well-known Italian fashion brands, which saw in Baroli a partner capable of meeting their requirements without compromising on quality standards. Collaborations also took place with Formula 1 (shoes created specifically for driver Juan Pablo Montoya) and for professional golfers.
Today, those three sons are still very much part of the business. Lauro – the only surviving brother, a pattern maker, assembler and finisher – is the living memory of the initial transformation, when the process moved from the cutting workshop to the finished shoe. Savio and Piero are the fathers of the third generation who have taken over the family business. There is no shortage of key female figures: Donatella De Toffoli works in the last-fitting, upper preparation and assembly departments, whilst Elisabetta Gregori is head of the stitching department. Both assist customers with foot measurements and the selection of bespoke footwear. Both are mothers to Cesare’s four grandchildren. Four cousins, four degrees, four rich perspectives on a trade that none of them had chosen as their first career path.
Silvia, product design at the Politecnico di Milano, now a patternmaker and head of crust dyeing and finishing. Clara, who studied foreign languages and literature at the Catholic University, is in charge of the cutting, layout and leather selection departments, as well as being the point of contact for foreign customers. Carlo, an economics graduate, handles the company’s management affairs and personally oversees the assembly stages. Filippo, a computer engineering graduate from the Polytechnic University of Turin, is in charge of cutting alongside Clara, develops the in-house IT systems and acts as a mechanic for machinery maintenance.
Each of them has returned out of love for a factory and a world in which they grew up. And each has brought with them something that wasn’t there before: a design methodology, a foreign language, management training, IT programming. Innovation.
ARTISANS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
This is a picture that illustrates what is meant when we speak of “artisans of the 21st century”. Not a company that pretends to be modern, but a workshop that integrates modernity where and when it is needed. To defend and pass on the Goodyear welting technique, one must know how to manage it using CAD and, when necessary, prototype it in 3D, alongside decorative stitching still carried out with artisanal know-how. To produce a high-quality shoe, one must choose eco-friendly water-based adhesives and hypoallergenic tanned leathers. For a sustainable shoe, you need a 30 kW photovoltaic system covering at least 70% of the company’s energy requirements and a vision that prioritises the product’s durability and repairability.
BESPOKE CUSTOMISATION
The company works with fashion brands that refuse to compromise on quality, and which find in Cesare Baroli a supplier capable of interpreting their style to the full. At the same time, work on bespoke footwear continues. Determining the fit is almost a ritual: measurements of both the customer’s feet are taken, using both a digital scanner and a traditional tape measure, and used to construct the last. This is the starting point for personalising the product: over 100 models, over 100 leathers, 9 types of soles, 25 possible finishes. Calfskin, cordovan, alligator, stingray, ostrich, even elephant; hand-stitched decorative seams, monograms stamped onto the upper, initials in gold or silver, embroidery. And every new pair replicates the comfort of the previous one, thanks to the constantly updated last archive.
The 100% Made in Italy label, promoted by Confartigianato, is not just a simple label here. Every stage – design, production, assembly – takes place in the Piedmontese workshop. In November 2008, the Piedmont Region awarded the company the Certificate of Artisanal Excellence. Sixteen years on, that certificate carries even greater weight: it signifies having weathered two global crises, a generational handover, the digital revolution and a pandemic.
Cesare Baroli 1947 is a unique example of excellence: a guardian of tradition, committed to quality, and capable of renewal.
