The story begins in the 1950’s. When Emidio, a wrestler became upset by the boots he was buying being too slippery and uncomfortable. Emidio was lucky enough to know a thing or two about shoes, because as well as being a wrestler, he also worked in his fathers cobblers shop in Ascoli. The shop itself can trace its roots back to 1886.

Emidio decided to make himself a pair of soft, comfortable boots to wear in the wrestling ring. This changed everything.

At the same time his footballing friend told him he had become frustrated with his hard leather boots which felt like he was running on stone. So Emidio had a bright idea. He decided to make football boots out of soft calf skin (like his wrestling boots) instead of the usual hard leather boots his friend was using.

His friend could not believe the difference. He no longer felt the pain caused by his old hard boots and spread the word about his new ones. All of a sudden everyone in the city wanted a pair, so Emidio got to work, taking measurements of every Ascoli player before making them, one by one.

The boots became so popular that a giant of football, John Charles, known as King John, a legendary goal scorer for Juventus heard about these new soft boots, handmade and made to measure. When he wore them on the pitch the legend took flight. ‘These boots feel like slippers’

And so these boots, made by Emidio became the most sort after boots in Italy. Wearing Pantofola d’Oro boots Milano became European and World Champions and his boots were worn by some of the best Italian footballers of the age.

By the seventies the Dutch teams had heard about them. Crujiff wearing Pantofola d’Oro boots won three European Cups. Italy also became World Cup winners. At the same time, the Brazilian’s came to Italy. Guess which boots they wanted to buy & wear?

And so the legend of Pantofolo d’Oro grew even bigger than Football. Pantofola also made its mark on rugby, tennis, basketball, golf and cycling.

In the twenty-first centaury unfortunately Pantofolo d’Oro’s true craftmanship could not compete with the marketing of multinational companies with enormous financial interest in the sports industry. The company collapsed, but was then resurrected by new owners Kim Williams and Massimo Ubaldi who loved the history and working by the values of true shoemaking craftsmanship.

The new brand owners attended one of the world’s most important events for determining the style of the future. They took with them examples of football boots developed by Emidio from 1950’s and adapted these for causal use. The interest in these shoes were remarkable: two months later the same shoes were presented in Paris and soon after they were to be found in the best shops around the world, including Cube in Lytham St Annes.

Pantofolo d’Oro continue to make shoes 100{9916029c23c94744ca1aa3c3734b52a7114a4e6a53cc8e15242cb5d66924c2a7} Italian style, with quality materials and attention to detail. Made in Italy. A real authentic product, produced not only in an authentic manner, with quality materials and following quality processes but founded on real values which make the difference.