Ftg Safety Shoes, over sixty years of history grounded in experience and quality

Over sixty years of experience in the business, featuring an ongoing search for quality, a stable growth over time as well as the use of cutting- edge technologies and materials. An adventure that started back in 1959, during the Italian economic upswing, thanks to Giuseppe Trevisan, who, with his forward-looking entrepreneurial attitude and relentless resourcefulness, established officially the firm, calling it FTG – an acronym standing for Fratelli Trevisan Grancona, a name that embodies core values such as history, family and territory -, and helped steer it towards the future.
Today, that “journey”, carried on with the same special expertise made of integrity, specialization, Italian design and constant improvement, is led by the founder’s son, Luciano Trevisan, currently the sole shareholder, supported by his children and wife, by a passionate team, by a desire to keep growing and to tackle more challenges. Without fear of contradiction, we can say that FTG, based in Lonigo (Vicenza province), is not just a company, but rather the project of an Italian family, a heritage passed down from father to son over the years; the firm’s foundations, including consistency, reliability and craftsmanship, have grown sounder and sounder, thus managing to nurture research, technique and innovation.
“My father,” stated Luciano Trevisan, whom we met at the A+A exhibition, the leading international occupational safety and health fair, held in Düsseldorf (Germany) in late October 2021, “launched in 1959 his business in the footwear sector, focusing on the production of slippers for both the domestic and the German market: it was a “vulcanized”, rubber article, a truly cutting-edge technology back then. Later, he turned his attention to safety footwear, providing models featuring the same vulcanized rubber sole, with the addition of steel toe-caps and anti- perforation insoles, up until the introduction of the polyurethane injection technology. From that point forward, the firm has experienced a steady growth, as we have dealt solely with the making of safety shoes, the latter our core business right since the ‘90s.”
One could say that you were born and grew up amidst shoes…
“That’s true: I am the second generation of the Trevisan family and, right behind me, there are my two children, who have already started collaborating with the firm, while proceeding with their education. Both of them, the representants of the third generation, are showing great interest: the elder one just graduated and will travel abroad for an internship, the younger is completing his university studies. They plan to gain some work experience outside the family business as well and we encourage this decision, because we look favourably to this desire to build their own professional career without too many privileges or benefits.”
How do you organize your business?
“FTG activities are well-structured, carried out wholly in-house, from beginning to end. As a matter of fact, we take care of product development, starting with design, then we process and manufacture the article; after that, we deal with logistics and with sales with the support of our personnel, including two sellers residing permanently in Germany, the latter a strategic market for us. The supply chain, ranging from suppliers to distributors, is very complex and every single process must be performed to perfection in order to ensure a top-notch final result. We have been praised for the competitive quality/price ratio, yet our flagship trait lies in quality. Recently, we aced the tests for the ISO 9001 Quality System certification, a system that analyses all data: the result, 0.19%, is excellent, because it means that testers found less than one imperfection (maybe a simple shoelace) per every 500 pairs of shoes.”
What are your main reference markets?
“Italy is still in first place, accounting for approximately a 30% share of the turnover, even though, figures-wise, France is about to take the lead, as the latter has registered a significant growth in recent years. As for the rest, we work really well with our traditional markets such as Germany, Austria and Northern Europe. Overall, we export our articles to 40 countries worldwide, ranging from the Mediterranean area to the Middle East, from South America up to the Far East. According to our corporate strategy, we keep a close eye on those nations that accept CE certified shoes, that is, the European Community’s mark.”
What is FTG SAFETY SHOES’ stance on sustainability?
“First of all, I would like to say that this is a delicate issue: many companies like to advertise their commitment to recycling and sustainability, but, once you go and check the details, reality is different. We strive to be transparent when it comes to our communication strategies; for this reason, we have added, both on the website and in the catalogue, a whole of range of parameters concerning ecology, materials’ re-circulation and recycling. As far as our facility is concerned, we use 20% of electricity coming from renewable sources in the processing cycle; furthermore, we can rely on materials derived from recycled products, for shoe-making operations as well as for packaging solutions.”
Therefore, in this case, is transparency your trump card?
“Exactly. All in all, we have tried to provide complex, yet detailed information. For this reason, we point out specific data on every single product, highlighting green distinctive traits for the footwear sector. This sustainability-driven commitment is an integral part of our corporate philosophy and of our core mission, that is, to remain credible over time. This choice, up to date, has paid off, given that we have acquired over sixty years of experience and we have some regular customers, inherited from my father. The fact that they are still working with us bears witness to our long-lasting reliability and professionalism.”

FTG – www.ftg-safety.com

The FTG team at A+A Düsseldorf fair