“That has been my life’s work: striving to learn to make shoes that always fit and the refusal to put my name to any that do not fit. Therefore, please look behind the story of the small, barefoot, unlettered boy who became a famous shoemaker, and seek the pleasure you will obtain from walking well.”

These are words written by Ferragamo himself in the preface to his autobiography. Hailing from Campania in the south of Italy, the story of an Italian cobbler setting sail to America has always been an inspiring one, with the happiest of endings as one of the most famous shoemakers in the world today.