Adriano Stefanelli

Adriano Stefanelli’s story began when he was just 14 years old and preferred to work in his father’s workshop in Novara than work on his studies. One of three brothers, he was the only one to learn the trade and continue the family tradition. At the beginning, he only did repairs but then started handmaking shoes, and from there business took off. A turning point for Adriano came in 2002 when he gifted a pair of shoes to Pope John Paul II. The pope had fallen ill and Adriano wanted to make him feel better, so he guessed the pope’s size and created a beautiful pair of shoes for him. Somehow Adriano got in touch with Pope John Paul’s secretary, and from that day he would be the only one to create the pope’s footwear. Another major highlight of Adriano’s career was in 2005 when he rose to international fame after the press published a photo of him gifting Pope Benedict XVI a shiny pair of ruby red slippers. The famed American men's magazine, Esquire, even crowned the pope "Accessorizer of the Year" in 2007. Since then, his clients have included Silvio Berlusconi, Lech Walesa, George W. Bush, and many more. Each Adriano Stefanelli product is made with care by his and his hands only. With orders from clients all over the globe, the workshop produces about 10-20 pairs of shoes a month. With this recent e-commerce debut, Adriano Stefanelli hopes to reach more people in the world and share his craftsmanship with them.