They're the coolest boots not at the World Cup, but they don't care. We speak to Pantofola d'Oro chief Kim Williams about the Italian brand and their classy World Cup 2014 collection.
SB: How do Pantofola d'Oro approach a World Cup when it comes to the football boots and creating a tournament collection?
Kim: A World Cup year is always very important for football boot companies and all the top worldwide brands tend to put together strong collections. What we try to do as Pantofola d'Oro is communicate to the football world that our collection includes the best of the past and the present and that we develop the perfect ''tool'' for the footballers foot.
SB: Can you take us through the Pantofola d'Oro World Cup collection and the design concept behind the boots?
Kim: In general when we think about a new collection we also try to mix past and future as we feel that it is vital to always keep in mind the DNA of the brand; quality leathers, Italian craftmanship etc are all vital although we also realise that the market needs added innovation. When a major event comes up we look to put together an overall package that considers teams that are participating with a consistent theme across the whole line. This time we have looked at the flags and colours of the participating nations.
SB: How do you see Pantofola d'Oro evolving over the next 5 to 10 years?
Kim: Our aim is to become more reknown in the football market. We see ourselves as the Ferrari of football shoes. We will never be the brand who sell the most numbers but what we do we do well and everyone soooner or later will want to try our boots. Distribution wise we look at quality partnerships and we have a very long term worldwide agreement with Pro-Direct Soccer and our aim is to together in the next years become a stronger worldwide player.
SB: How do you view the changing landscape of modern football boot design?
Kim: Of course there are very few leather boots nowadays. Leather is more expensive, harder to look after and difficult to print on; for these reasons all other brands use 99% synthetic materials. From an environment, health and use point of view leather can't be beaten so we feel that it still has a major part to play. Unfortunately now there is not the ''love'' that there once was in the past for looking after boots. Football boots like anything of quality need to be looked after, cleaned and dried correctly. It's a lot easier just to put the boots under water and wash them! But is this the best solution for your feet? We don't think so.
Read the full interview in Issue 01 of the SoccerBible Magazine. Order you copy here. The Pantofola d'Oro WC14 Collection is available to order now at Pro-Direct Soccer.
