Innovation and tradition are deeply rooted in SCARPA’s DNA. To this day, the brand remains family-owned and its headquarters and productions units are still established in the same region of Northern Italy, were SCARPA started making performance footwear in 1938.
Founded in the foothills of the Dolomites, in the Asolo / Montebelluna region, an area long known for quality shoe making, SCARPA’s first mission was to gather the best shoe maker of the Asolo region in order to manufacture the best shoes in the world. SCARPA means Società Calzaturiera Asolana Riunita Pedemontana Anonim, which translates to Joint Venture Shoe Making Company of the Asolo Mountain Zone.
Immersed in this tradition of craftsmanship and heritage, Luigi Parisotto started to learn the art of quality shoe making before finally buying the company with his brothers, turning it into a family business. Parisotto started to learn his trade at the age of 11 in 1940 and worked for SCARPA in 1942. From the very beginning, Parisotto loved the craftsmanship involved in traditional shoe making and ran his own company, S. Giorgio, in the early 1950 with his brothers. Producing between 4 to 15 pairs of shoes a day. They were sold to local farmers looking for shoes that were both comfortable and extremely durable.
In 1956, Parisotto and three of his brothers with the help of their family, gathered enough money to make an offer to SCARPA. The offer was accepted and the company quickly developed under their management to employ 17 expert shoe makers, it grew during these first years to produce 50 to 60 pairs a day. At the end of the 1950’s, word of SCARPA’s quality spread outside the Montebelluna region and attracted clients from numerous other regions in Northern Italy.
