‘For us, just making great shoes is almost boring. It’s too easy. We need a challenge, and the challenge I give to my people is that we need to create an object of desire, because the market is full of shoes.’ So says Giuseppe Santoni, executive president of the family business of the same name that was started by his father Andrea in 1975. Back then the family’s garage was the workshop and there were four craftsmen. Today, there are some 700 housed in a state-of-the-art factory in Marche in the east of the country, bordering the Adriatic, historically the shoemaking region of Italy.

Santoni is known as a maker of beautiful, stylish shoes. It’s unusual for an Italian shoemaker as it uses the Goodyear welted process, which is more often associated with British footwear, but Giuseppe Santoni decided this was the way to go after visiting a bunch of factories in Northampton on a fact-finding mission. ‘I always like to study, because I read a book a long time ago, The Art of War,’ he explains. ‘And it said that to win the battle you need to know the enemy.’ Armed with his knowledge of the Goodyear welt, he bought machinery to do the same and shipped it to Italy where he set about changing the way Santoni worked. But his mission was not complete. The world is not only full of shoes, he says, but also full of ‘quality products’.

‘If you know how to, you can find quality products, but the secret [for shoemaking] is to make a quality product with the best fit and comfort, which is also an object of desire,’ he clarifies. It is this combination of design and quality that characterises Santoni’s creations. That and a restless quest for improvement. Giuseppe’s father made him CEO at the age of 21, clearly recognising an energy that survives over three decades later. ‘I wake up and I know that I’ve got to do something – but I’m never happy. I always believe we can make it better.’

The latest development has been prompted by the realisation that not everyone wants the feel of a traditional shoe, even though they might want the look. The new Easy collection from Santoni consists of five styles made from shaded suede and calfskin: a Chelsea boot and desert boot, a double-buckle shoe, a lace-up Oxford and a loafer.

What sets these apart is their lightness and comfort. ‘It’s a shoe [the Easy collection] that is 295 grams,’ says Giuseppe. ‘It looks like an English classic shoe but it’s very light, and is made with a rubber that we studied for three years.’ This comprises the sole, in which air functions to give what Santoni describes as ‘a kind of tension inside’. ‘You push the rubber and it comes back. It always come back. You push it three million times and it comes back. And this gives you the same feeling you get when you wear a sneaker. But in reality you’ve got a classic pair of shoes on your feet.’

The Easy models also have a glove-like lining made of soft goatskin leather with perforations, and a “memory” insole in a foam blended with leather and elastic materials, including an element of aloe vera. The styles also feature a special elasticated system to allow you to slide into them. ‘That’s why we call [the collection] Easy, because you can slip into the shoes without lacing them,’ Giuseppe reveals.

Extolling the virtue of the rubber soles (‘I mean you can run with these shoes, easily, no problem’), he says that the Easy collection delivers an extraordinary level of comfort. ‘This cushioning that you have, gives you really unbelievable comfort. Totally unexpected.’ But he acknowledges that the ease of the Easy is not the whole point. ‘Nobody buys your shoes because they’re comfortable, unless you need to buy technical shoes, or you have a problem with your feet. You always need to create an object of desire. That’s what we do – our objects are perfectly made with the best leather and with the best possible construction process.’

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