Cristian Berti
Owner and Commercial Director Arzanà Veneto
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In a world where everything becomes standardised, we want to bring back the desire to be proudly different”. This is how this 100% made in Italy brand presents itself, a mix of history and craftsmanship. A footwear brand linked to the concept of stylistic perfection and dedication to luxury.
Its shoes tell about the cultural values of the beating heart of the city of Venice, which amazed the world for centuries with: the Arsenale. The largest ship factory internationally.
We are talking about Arzanà Veneto, also simply called AV, a brand that narrates the values of historical contamination: exclusive craftsmanship, an indomitable desire to “give the best because we need the best”.
We talk about Arzanà Veneto with Cristian Berti, owner and founder of the brand. We met him in the Moro & Co. showroom (in Villafranca di Verona) which contribute to the development of the AV collections.
How did you get to the world of footwear?
“I come from a family of entrepreneurs in the mechanical field, but life led me to make different choices and thus I entered the world of footwear 20 years ago. With shoes it was love at first sight and, in these two decades, I have learned a lot about the sector, a sector that has also enriched me as a person. At a certain point I thought it right to follow my own way and undertake a path that fully reflected my ideas so that I created the AV brand. It came to light almost by chance, unexpectedly during a dinner above Soave (in the area of the Verona hills)”.
What are the points of reference that inspire you?
“I’ve always liked essentiality, a clean style without many frills. I have therefore always been passionate about Armani’s taste: being able to be elegant without necessarily having to exhibit one’s elegance. Beyond Armani, Burberry and its timeless trench coat, the archetype of those products that survive time and manage to create stories lasting for decades”.
Is there a personal passion that you managed to convey to your brand?
“Many recognise my good taste and I believe this can be seen in the shoes we make.
Sunglasses are actually my real passion. I thus believe there will eyewear products signed by AV in the future”.
What leadership style do you apply with those who work with you?
”I really like the relationship that Professor Keating, in the movie Dead Poets Society, kept with his students. An equal and non-hierarchical relationship. He did not teach them the love for poetry, but he dragged them to embrace their own passion. As an entrepreneur, I also prefer not to say no for no good reason, but I tend to explain that ‘no’”.
How would you define AV products if you had to explain them to someone who doesn’t know you?
“Our basic idea could appear very strange if evaluated with the traditional commercial rules. What AV wants to create, in fact, is an iconic product, which can pass through seasons and trends unharmed. When we therefore thought about our flagship line, AV900, we looked for a design that would allow us to remain recognisable even as the various seasons change, and that could be renewed without denying our core values”.
What is your target audience?
“We imagine him/her as a person who loves art and beauty, who avoids standards, and looks for footwear that can be placed outside of already traced paths. At the same time, a person who wants a functional product, that does its job well. Our keywords are, therefore, Art and Use. We want both concepts to be present in our shoes”.
Your products are much obliged to the manufacturing process. Does a product made thanks to the know-how of a craftsman still make sense in a world that seems, in reality, more reassured by the homologation and ‘perfection’ of mass products that are all exactly identical to each other?
“I think it’s a question of cyclicality. The 90s and 00s led to an excess of standardisation through which people feel more accepted and integrated into the urban tribes that the big brands have been able to build. We believe that it is tastier, however, being able to rediscover the beauty of diversity that inevitably leads you to rediscover the uniqueness of each one of us. And, when something is unique, it is also valuable in itself”.
What are the peculiar features that an artisanal approach brings to your footwear?
“First of all we wanted to complicate our lives immediately by distancing ourselves from what are considered ‘normal’ processes and we opted for a Good Year construction (with a sole made by combining several leather layers then sewn together with the upper). Thanks to this process, the shoe becomes almost eternal, almost indestructible.
Then we opted for Italian leathers, obtained from vegetable tanning, and we apply the ‘tumbling’ technique to our uppers: once the upper has been prepared, it is placed in a sort of pumice stone bath that peels the outer part of the leather. In this way, it is possibile to obtain a very particular vintage effect that gives each pair that uniqueness we were talking about earlier.
Finally, we pay an accurate attention to the gambit. It is our artist’s canvas on which a military fabric can stand out today, tomorrow replaced by a hand-painted or printed leather with some particular design. It is the element that characterises the model season after season”.
How long does it take for a made in Italy shoe like yours to see the light?
“The whole cycle, starting from the precious leather processing, takes about 28 days. An attention to detail that only we Italians are able to ensure and that we take the risk of creating. I really believe in this type of made in Italy that relies on the Italian genius starting from the idea and the materials, up to the assembly and boxing”.
How do you choose your suppliers?
“For the type of product we make, we are not looking for super-structured industrial realities, but footwear factories that can guarantee us an artisan touch. Furthermore, at a time like the present one, it is also important to find suppliers that can work on minimum lots. It is crucial to be able to manage distribution and warehouse with the utmost prudence, as well as having the possibility to renew the product whenever there is a need.
Among other things, I like the idea of being on the side of the smallest realities, also because I believe that Italy has become great in the world thanks to small-business enterprises”.
What is your distribution strategy?
“I realised the increasingly pressing importance of reducing the distance between the brand and the consumer. We have therefore invested in a latest generation e-commerce that will allow us to involve those who buy our shoes in our decision-making processes. I have already seen firsthand that those who fall in love with a brand want to participate in its growth, they go as far as writing to you and suggest how to do better. By working on e-commerce and social media you can get this particular proximity with customers impossible to reach through normal distribution channels.
Plus, by doing so, you also gain more control over what is said about your product. Our e-commerce, in fact, is not structured only to sell, but also to explain the philosophy of the company, how it was born and the characteristics of our shoes. Because we don’t want to sell a shoe, but the emotion connected to it”.