A shoe is never just a shoe. Especially in Italy, where behind every model lie industrial districts, skilled hands, technical schools, carefully selected materials, and a precise idea of shape, comfort, and beauty. This is the starting point of the candidacy process for the Art of Italian Footwear to be included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The initiative is promoted by Assocalzaturifici, Museimpresa, CERCAL, and Politecnico Calzaturiero through a Steering Committee led by Giovanna Ceolini.

 

If successful, the Art of Italian Footwear could become the first UNESCO recognition specifically dedicated to footwear as an intangible form of knowledge and craftsmanship.

 

Because it is knowledge before it is a product

The 2003 UNESCO Convention focuses on practices, knowledge, skills, and traditional craftsmanship that communities recognize as part of their cultural identity. Italian footwear fits perfectly within this definition because of everything that comes before the finished product: understanding the last, selecting materials, cutting, stitching, assembling, and finishing. It is a body of knowledge built on precision, trained observation, memory, corrected mistakes, and gestures repeated until they become expertise.

 

Because it lives within industrial districts

Italian footwear is rooted in specific territories. Marche, Veneto, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Puglia, and Campania have each developed their own specializations, supplier networks, schools, archives, and professional communities. According to Confartigianato, the sector counted 7,769 active companies at the end of 2025, employing 69,855 people, generating €12.7 billion in turnover and €4.1 billion in added value. These are industrial figures, certainly, but behind them lies a productive culture deeply embedded in local communities.

Because it is passed on

Intangible heritage remains alive when it is transmitted from one generation to the next. This is why the involvement of CERCAL and Politecnico Calzaturiero is so important. The former is an accredited training center recognized as a center of excellence for the footwear sector; the latter represents the Riviera del Brenta District, which includes 522 companies, 10,043 employees, approximately 19 million pairs of shoes produced annually, and exports accounting for 91% of production. Here, the future of footwear is shaped in workshops, classrooms, production departments, and through the dialogue between experienced professionals and those learning the craft.

 

Because it preserves memory

The candidacy also involves Museimpresa, bringing together corporate archives and company museums. This is a crucial step: a supply chain becomes culture when it is able to tell its own story. The Footwear Museum at Villa Foscarini Rossi, for example, houses 1,500 luxury women’s shoe models linked to the history of Rossimoda from 1947 to the present day, as well as collaborations with leading international fashion houses. Here, memory is not static; it lives on through shapes, prototypes, techniques, and aesthetic insights that continue to inspire the present.

Because it is fragile

The candidacy comes at a delicate moment. In 2025, exports of Italian footwear reached €11.7 billion, remaining broadly stable compared to the previous year. At the same time, however, the sector’s production index was down by 39.1% compared to 2019. This is where the UNESCO discussion becomes tangible: safeguarding means protecting skills and expertise that, once lost, are difficult to rebuild.