The Superga history

Turin, 1911. The Walter Martiny Rubber Industry was born, which will be called “Superga” given the proximity of the factory to the famous Basilica.

Walter Martiny, the founder, discovered the existence of a new technology, invented by Charles Goodyear: the vulcanization of natural rubber. He was the first person to bring the invention in Italy.

In 1913, Superga® starts the production of fully waterproof rubber boots, which reduce the problem of diseases and infections typical of places like rice fields and marshlands.

In 1925, the Superga® 2750 was born. It all started thanks to Walter Martiny’s wife, an enthusiastic tennis player. At the time tennis was played with rope-soled shoes, offering excellent grip on clay courts but easily damaged. The Swiss engineer decided to produce a mould with a latex and sulphur

mix creating a new sole in vulcanized natural rubber, which was basically indestructible.

In 1962, the Italian graphic designer Albe Steiner created the new Superga® logo, characterized by a simple and clean design and still in use today.

In the 70s, Superga® firmly established itself in the world of sports with a dedicated range. All of the brand’s sports shoes featured the unmistakable “swallow tail” logo. Here were Superga® Sport, the shoes aimed at professional athletes from different sports, including tennis, which continued to feature in the brand’s history.

Many athletes wanted to wear Superga®, and not just them. In 2007, after three years as licensee of the brand, BasicNet acquires the Superga® brand and takes care of its repositioning on the market through high-impact advertising campaigns and collaborations with prestigious brands in the fashion world, among which those with Fendi and Swarovski stand out.

In the same year, South Africa becomes the brand's first foreign licensee. During the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the reunification of Italy, Superga® was acknowledged as “one of the 50 objects that made Italy”, thus confirming its status as the “People’s shoes of Italy”.

For the last hundred years, being an icon for Superga® has been like a tennis match: the strokes of the beginnings resound in the volleys of the present. At each rebound, the past and the present mirror each other, in an endless fusion of heritage and avant-garde, sports and fashion.

Superga® is one of the most prestigious brands in the history of Italian footwear all over the world and is aimed at those who wear casual and contemporary shoes, but with a touch of true history and almost a hundred years of culture and tradition. The Superga® brand is currently distributed in over 5 countries around the world with a global network of mono-brand stores and multi-brand retailers.

Superga® is and always will be a classic because, since the beginnings, it has always kept its timeless appeal untouched, regardless how you wear it.