Sydney-based Brando Shoes have been crafting fine Italian footwear since 1988. We sit down for a chat with the brand’s founder ROCCO MASCITELLI to talk three decades of shoemaking innovation…
Rocco Mascitelli is a firm believer that “a good pair of leather shoes should last for years.” As the founder of Brando Shoes, Mascitelli has a wealth of knowledge and expertise honed over decades working between Australia and Europe on his company’s footwear. He established Brando after cutting his teeth in the shoemaking region of Marche, Italy, a place he first visited as a teenager thanks to his father’s shoe importing business.
“My father was a tailor by trade, and he had the idea of importing shoes into Australia about fifty years ago,” he tells MAXIM. “It’s my passion, Brando has been part of my life since 1988 and I’ve lived and breathed it for all these years.” More than three decades later, Brando offers timeless styles that form the foundation of the modern man’s wardrobe. “Everyone needs a Chelsea boot, a nice loafer and a nice sneaker,” Mascitelli says.
We are sitting at a table in the firm’s airy showroom in Sydney’s trendy inner west surrounded by shelves of finely crafted Italian shoes. Mascitelli believes his company has thrived over the years because his shoes reflect a fine balance between “tradition and innovation”. Unsurprisingly the Chelsea boot – long the quintessential day to night shoe in every Aussie bloke’s wardrobe – is a reliable best seller. “This is the Chelsea boot everyone should have,” he says, picking up a boot from the shelves behind us and clopping it down on the table. “It’s something that’s distinctive and if you make it properly it has all the elements of durability and will last forever.”
As we go through Brando’s impressive oeuvre of styles, he pauses to point out details and traces the history of each shoe. “I love driving shoes, they’re like wearing nothing,” he says while examining a forest green driving loafer, before adding, “Ferdinand Porsche invented the driving shoe to drive sportscars and it’s become a fashion item.” Proving the durability of his shoes, Mascitelli gamely picks up another loafer and proceeds to nearly fold the shoe in half before it snaps back perfectly without even a faint crease imprinted on the leather.
While the essence of Brando is steeped in loafers, boots and brogues that have stood the test of time, Mascitelli is also in the business of doing business, which means embracing change. “From when I started to now, it’s evolved. We’ve had the sneaker revolution and that has turned footwear upside down,” he says. Proving that distinctly Aussie ability to adapt, Mascitelli has responded to the disruption caused by sneaker culture by adding a line of leather sneakers to his collection. “We love fashion, we do sneakers and we try to apply to sneakers what we do in our other footwear.”
He continues, “Our footwear is slow fashion. It’s all about owning and being part of our story and it’s not about changing your shoes every two minutes.” Since its inception in the late eighties, Brando has prided itself on ethically-made shoes that last for years, a relatively new concept in the ephemeral world of fashion. “Our philosophy has always been towards slow fashion and people are coming back to that and we’re seeing a resurgence.
“Seventy per cent of our footwear is made in Italy by little factories, one in particular only does Brando – you can’t get more ethical than that.” The rest of his shoes are made in safe hands by cobblers in Portugal, Brazil and Turkey, three countries with their own rich traditions of footwear making. “We try to do everything that is environmentally friendly,” says Mascitelli. “It’s what we’re all about – look at the shoes and you’ll realise in everything Brando does, all the materials are veg tanned leathers, we don’t use chrome-based chemicals. When you smell a pair of Brando shoes you can tell they’re premium quality.”
By REILLY SULLIVAN
Discover the world of Brando shoes at WWW.BRANDO.COM.AU
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