When you are looking for shoes, you want to be sure that they not only look beautiful but also fit your feet perfectly and comfortably. All Santoni shoes are made of high quality leather. Besides the fact that leather shoes are a good choice for flexibility, sturdiness and comfort, this material is also suitable for sweaty feet because of the good ventilation.
To help you on your way with your shoe choice, in this article we explain exactly which leathers Santoni uses for its various types of shoes.
The different leathers of Santoni shoes.
The leather that Santoni uses for its shoes is hand selected by the founder of Santoni: Andrea Santoni. During this selection process, the leather is carefully examined. Since Santoni has very strict requirements on the quality that the leather must meet, the leather is even studied with the help of a magnifying glass. Santoni shoes consist of 3 types of calfskin:
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Calfskin of Santoni shoes
The first type of leather that Santoni uses for shoes is calfskin. The calfskin leather comes from the young calves that are up to one and a half years old. It is characterized by its softness and fine grain. This ensures that the leather is supple and has a fine structure. In addition, calfskin is also durable. Calfskin is extremely suitable for making santoni sneakers.
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Heifer leather of Santoni shoes
This commonly used leather at the Santoni brand comes from a heifer. A heifer is a calf that is a year and a half to 2 years old. These heifers have spent a summer season walking in the beautiful alpine pasture at altitude in the mountains of Switzerland and Italy and Austria. During these beautiful summer months, the daytime temperatures can sometimes reach around 30 degrees. Because of the altitude in the mountains, the temperature at night can also easily drop back to about 5 degrees below zero. Due to these large temperature fluctuations, the structure of the skin of calves can develop enormously. Moreover, the skin is still flexible enough to make the classic Santoni shoes.
Because these heifers graze naturally in the mountains and are not fed concentrates, the skin can grow evenly. When a heifer is fed concentrates, the skin will grow explosively, which is not good for the skin. Another advantage is that these heifers are not bothered by barbed wire or pests and insects in the mountains. This can prevent swelling and inflammation. So when the skins of these heifers are undamaged, the whole skin can be used for making Santoni shoes.
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Rovesciato Suède of Santoni shoes
The third type of calfskin is the rovesciato suede, which is literally the translation of turned leather. The skin of a cow is about 1 cm thick and consists of layers. These layers are broken down into 4 layers with the top layer being the best layer. What Santoni does with suede is flip the top layer so that you have leather on the inside and the soft fur/suede on the outside. A great example of this is the dark blue Santoni loafers suede. Normally Santoni uses this top layer for the normal leather shoes.
Exotic leathers of Santoni shoes
In addition to these three types of calfskin, there are also Santoni shoes made from exotic leathers. These exotic leathers have a beautiful print of animal skins. One is the crocodile leather and the other is the hippo leather.
Santoni has beautiful shoes made of crocodile leather. These precious crocodile skins come from the farms in America. Because these crocodiles are slaughtered at a young age, the print still has beautiful small scales and this skin is undamaged.
Are you a real winter sports fan? Then the Santoni hippo shoes are very suitable for you. Because a hippo lives almost his entire life in the water, this skin is very suitable for snow and rain. Perfect when you're in a winter sports area and have to walk a lot through the snow. For these shoes, getting wet is not a problem. Take a look at our santoni winter shoes.