Vegan footwear solutions: Di Romeo Vegan, made in Italy

Integrating personal concerns for the environment, with a long history of great craftsmanship in footwear design and manufacturing, is what Paolo Anemone and Federico Bellò have been doing in Italy with their recently created brand Di Romeo Vegan.

The company was born in 2010, mostly as a solution to Paolo Anemone’s personal struggle to find greater continuity between his vegetarian lifestyle and his profession as a third generation Italian shoemaker.  Instead of leaving behind his professional world, Paolo chose to let his new philosophy of life transform it and change it for the better.  What needed to be different was not so much the type of product he had been making, but the process and the materials that were behind it.  

Di Romeo Vegan today is doing something that many Italian shoe manufacturers are not willing to do: challenging the long-standing tradition of Italian leather shoes and exploring a brand new territory where alternative methods and technologies are employed, where no animal products and derivatives are ever used, where materials are chosen because of their low level of impact on the environment.

Di Romeo Vegan’s tomaie (the upper parts of the shoes) are made prevalently out of leather-like materials and microfibers, offering light weight and great breathability.  For the inner soles, the company frequently uses cork and coconut straw.  The outer soles are most often made out of recycled rubber.  The glues are all water-based and contain no animal derivatives.  When possible, stitching replaces glueing. 

The final product is a high-quality, stylish and sleek pair of vegan shoes: a worthy representative of the outstanding Italian footwear tradition, a product that can satisfy both vegan and non-vegan shoe lovers alike.

Carolina Flaminia Perrone

For more information about Di Romeo Vegan visit their website here.