What Bottega Veneta are you carrying *today* ?

Bottega Veneta is a pretty interesting company, but somewhat unremarkable shoemakers. They work with decent quality calf and kid but nothing more adventurous or exotic. They usually blake stitch their shoes, although I did see some cement work when I last looked at their range in person (which was over five years ago, so things may have changed since). I've not seen a rapido or goodyear constructed shoe from them, nor any of the distressing and antiquing which is particular to many Italian shoemakers. In my mind Bottega Veneta are good but not brilliant shoemakers, making well constructed dress shoes but lacking that aggressive edge that some parts of the Italian shoe industry tends to display.

The thing is, Bottega Veneta are really more of a bag label and where they stand out is their signature leatherworking tehnique - the intrecciato weave (here's a promo video from Bottega Veneta showing a little of how the weave is done). There has been a growing increase in the popularity of intrecciato shoes that started a couple of years ago with Grenson releasing their woven Conrads (it's probably due as much to Nike making runners like the Free Inneva come to think of it) and this has brought more attention to Bottega Veneta's shoe range. One thing to note is that the nature of working with woven leather makes lasting an intrecciato shoe quite difficult. Many shoemakers choose to back the weave with a reinforcing material to make it easier to last, but Bottega Veneta do not do this as their weave is good enough to hold up on its own. Unsurprisingly, they're the best at working with their signature technique. :biggrin:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kmora and annie9999