Founded in 1918, the sole factory Frasson has grown over the years from a small workshop producing wooden clogs to an international group specialized in the production and distribution of rubber, PU, TPU and EVA soles and bottoms for various types of footwear.
We met with sales manager Alberto De Rossi, who told us about news and forecasts for the year that has just begun.
“A+A is once again a leading trade fair for safety, a sector in which we are positioned in the high-end range in terms of technology and segment. To our clients at the trade fair, we presented increasingly high- performance soles. Year after year the market is gradually moving away from the low-cost product and focused on more performing items: indeed the need to offer innovative solutions in terms of comfort, lightness, grip and chemicals (i.e. very high- performance compounds that easily meet LAB standards). The soles of the safety industry today (in our market segment) are no longer single-component, but feature several layers in different materials to guarantee multiple performances.
A+A 2023, on the whole, was a good edition for us, I would say on the level of pre-Covid editions. We were mainly satisfied with the quality of the visitors, who were interested and knowledgeable.
In a globally difficult footwear season, the W&S is keeping its share and, compared to other markets, is still investing heavily in research, machinery and new developments. Certainly this market has benefited less from the strong 2021- 2022 growth of outdoor and sports sectors, but it is certainly growing in a more linear and structured way. From our point of view, safety today is not only looking for novelty in terms of product, but also in terms of the research and development and production chain. Experience, know-how, materials, chemistry, mold mechanics and so on: all these aspects must be stay side by side if one really wants to strive for innovation and high-performance products. This is why the market is finally realizing the importance of teaming up with the supply chain: only by merging the experiences of everyone this target can be reached. We fully believe in this principle and are strong promoters of it.”
SUOLIFICIO FRASSON – frasson.com
