"We have been experiencing a noticeable slowdown in work for a few months, our luxury footwear sector has already begun to reduce quantities at the end of 2023, and heel orders have dropped significantly. The fact that the financial world is also running in 2024 gives us hope that we will soon restart, aiming to meet or exceed the excellent results of 2022. The restart is planned for early 2025, and this is already seen even from the first samples we are making these days." It is an accurate picture taken by Pavol Jaros, commercial director of Tacchificio di Molinella, one of the oldest heel factories in the world still in operation, established in the Bologna area in 1946.
"At the moment the production of heels has slowed down by more than 50 percent: there is an obvious stalemate in the sector, but companies like ours continue to believe in it, because the economic forecasts point everything to 2025," Jaros continues. "The fashion sector is ready to reactivate, the dynamics of the big groups prove it: companies in our sector, even with little work in these months are looking for all possible solutions not to lose skilled labor, just in view of the restart.
With the 2025 goal in mind, Molinella's Tacchificio is taking advantage of the slack period to upgrade its fleet, investing in new technologies. "We are moving from classic molding machines to full electric ones, improving our profile in terms of sustainability, also to meet the needs of the brands. We have equipped ourselves with the latest generation of prototyping machines, the HP Multi jet fusion, which have found immediate application for the needs of the style offices. Alongside technology, the company preserves the tradition of handcrafted pattern making, placing the latest generation 3D prototyping alongside manual processing."
With nearly 80 years of experience, the Molinella-based Tacchificio, first in Italy in the production of women's heels at an industrial level, has been able to follow the entire evolution of the product. "Now we make mainly plastic heels, while until the 1960s the raw material was wood," Jaros says. "In the 1950s the company patented the first thin wooden heel, while today we take up the daily challenge of making, exclusively and for selected customers, increasingly complex and environmentally sustainable heels. That is why our products, in addition to boasting the most exclusive workmanship, are certified "Plastic Second Life" and Iscc Bio-Circular."
