Was working at the company a natural choice?
Yes, it runs in the blood! And my relationship with my family is a strong one. Besides, my father is the company’s founder and manager, the surrounding environment is strongly connected to footwear, therefore the continuity path was basically inevitable.

What are you most fascinated about in the components’ sector?
We’re living in turbulent times, with a huge pressure in the communication, service and development ability. Footwear is a frenetic sector and everything begins with the sole. Bolflex is a vertical and versatile company that, allied to a good dose of madness and willingness to innovate, has risen the demand patterns of the markets where it operates, sometimes even functioning as an experience lab for the clients and designers, which is obviously an advantage for us too. Some new products have been emerging besides the soles, as it’s the case of R-Skin and the Pooch bags, both of them a result of a lot of research and development by trial and error. All this work is fascinating and exciting.

In your opinion, what does the new generation of entrepreneurs has to offer to the sector?
The new generation must not neglect the origins and lessons from the past. As in all new generations in the course of our recent global history of industrialization, there are several fresh ideas emerging with a lot of theoretical knowledge that have to be tested by trial and error, so we can evolve and grow. Nowadays, information travels at an overwhelming pace, quite different from 10 years ago, which builds a pressure on the oldest generations to keep up or otherwise they lose their way. With the arrival of online sales, the footwear business changed radically. This a result of a work that has been meritoriously and successfully done by this new generation. This has forced those within the supply chain to change its processes in order to adapt. With the appearance of Artificial Intelligence, I am sure a lot of more drastic changes are about to happen.

What piece of advice would you give to a youngster who is entering the industry?
Hard work, strength of will and an open mind to learning. The new generations want everything immediately, result of a world contaminated by social media but in industry things do not happen by simply clicking a button. We always take our time to build solid knowledge foundations that allow us to grow sustainably. Patience is key.