The traditional quality of Calpierre’s proposals aims at conquering the European affordable luxury market and is ready to accept the challenges of the sector
Calpierre is the trade name of “Calzaturificio De Pascale”, founded in Italy, precisely in Ercolano (in the province of Naples), around 1964 thanks to the initiative of Ciro De Pascale, born in 1935. The brand has come a long way since then and today it can be said that you can find it in every major city, either tourist or prestigious. With the winter collection made in 1992 it starts manufacturing women’s shoe, targeting young, lively and elegant ladies. A medium/fine target that with the passing of the years has been able to choose its favorite models inside an increasingly wider range of proposals. Even today, after many years, these collections are completely made in Italy by Italian master craftsmen, using national top-quality raw materials, and Calpierre’s costumers know how to recognize a good shoe, made according to the high qualitative standard of the past. The company, which has always been characterized by a strong familiar imprinting, gets its driving forces from the third generation of entrepreneurs (Vito De Pascale e Ciro Nevano) who continue to face the challenges of the markets with passion and professionalism.
In what market segment do you operate?
«In that of the products characterized by a classic and elegant sobriety, never out of fashion, never exaggerated. We operate in the average segment of the market».
What are the goals for the next few years?
«We want to focus on an accessible luxury. If in Russia, for example, we have always been perceived as a high range brand, now we would like to move to the accessible luxury area in order to conquer the increasingly wider customer base of that market segment».
What are you doing to reach that goal?
«3 seasons ago we added to the historic Bologna construction, for which we are famous, the possibility to have a particular finish: the uppers’ hand dyeing and polishing. A concept that has been very appreciated in France, Holland and Japan».
In what other markets you operate?
«Germany, China and Korea are the main international markets, while the 50% of our turnover still comes from Italy. A situation that we want to modify by focusing more on Europe, above all on the Eastern countries, where we would like to build a distribution system as branched as the Italian one. To focus on the domestic market means solidity for any company. Given the persistent crisis of our country, we want Europe to become our “domestic market”».
How would you describe the peculiarity of your models?
«What characterizes us is the fitting. We pay close attention to the fitting of every country in which we propose our creations ad we invest very much in sample collections that satisfy the needs of each foot. We focus more on this aspect than on the latest fashion».
What is your approach to sustainability?
«We decided to get the ISO 14001 certification in order to keep all the most significant impacts on environment under control, conscious that this will be a fundamental issue first of all for environment, but also, as a consequence, for the improvement of the company’s image and competitiveness».
And as regards e-commerce?
«We are convinced that the online pays less in mature markets than in the growing and expanding markets. Next season we will start an e-commerce experience in China».
