Italian Factory Tour: Gaerne Shoes

Photo gallery from inside the iconic brand.

By Jon Hornbeck

An iconic brand through out the cycling industry, Italian made Gaerne shoes are as family run as you can get with their factory just right next door to the house where the owner still lives today.

At 86 years old, founder Ernesto Gazzola still walks into the factory everyday to work and over see his product which he first started back in 1962 with the help of two family members which has now grown to a 55 employee business where they sell 79,000 shoes per year.

Based in Coste di Maser in the province of Treviso which is a distinct sports district for Italian made shoes, Gaerne is growing with their family run professional factory with one goal in mind, to make a great shoe.

We had the opportunity to walk through the factory and learn their story while taking in the sights of how their shoes are produced.

A signature G.Stilo shoe was done with a classic leather old school look.

All of the factory Gaerne workers wear their bright yellow coats while building their shoes.

One of their designers work on possible new shoe color ways.

Pieces of the shoe are cut out prior to being hand stitched together.

Attention to detail is a top priority inside the Gaerne factory.

Leather layers hang ready to be cut for new shoes or hiking boots which are still made for the local market.

Much of the shoe is still hand stitched together by the Italian workers.

A close look at one of Fabian Cancellara’s personal foot mold.

Gaerne supports some of the top professional’s who all have their own foot mold for their personal shoes.

The U.S./European market have a much smaller foot mold then the Asian market which are larger.

Gaerne also makes a very comfortable regular shoe with a Boa dial on it.

Gaerne is still in their original factory which has been expanded many times. You can tell from the original brick floor to the new expanded concrete area.

The Gaerne shoes are still primarily put together by hand with hand tools.

A limited glitter shoe was made for their women’s line.

There’s something to see a set of hand tools still made by Italian factory workers in Italy.

Most of the Gaerne shoes now use the Boa dial which Gaerne were one of the first to adopt.

Ernesto Gazzola who is the founder at 86 years old shows how he used to hand stitch hiking boots.

Another warehouse houses all of the finished shoes ready to be shipped off to their separate countries for sale.

Cadel Evans has three signature shoes kept behind a glass shelf which were very beautiful.