Andrea Carpineti, the CEO of Design Italian Shoes, who lives and works in Le Marche, Italy – known as Shoe Valley – came to Israel on a mission to find an Israeli AI strategist who could help ‘Design Italian Shoes’ make intelligent design recommendations to its customers. Carpineti said that in his hometown, he was watching as premier Italian shoe artisans were shuttering their doors because they could not compete in the international marketplace.
“These are small artisans in Shoe Valley that make high-quality shoes, but they don’t even have a website, and most don’t know English,” Carpineti said.
Carpineti’s company digitized the supply chain, bringing customizable, made-in-Italy shoes direct to the international buyer through its e-commerce platform.
Using the company’s 3D configurator, a customer can choose from hundreds of models of shoes and then customize every part of it, from the material, the color, the eyelets, the laces, the lining and even the sole. There are more than 50 million combinations, including ones in which the buyer submits his name or own image to be painted on the shoe.
The fabrics are premium Italian label fabrics, including hand-painted and hand-brushed leather. Prices range from an average of 300 euros ($375) to as high as 4,000 euros ($5,000), “We believe in mass customization,” said Carpineti. “We have everything you can imagine.”
