What Bruno Magli is known for

Siblings Bruno, Marino and Maria Magli began handmaking women's shoes in their Bologna family home's basement in 1936; a 1947 factory and 1967 first retail store followed, and the brand later expanded into men's footwear and international retail.

Bruno Magli traces to 1936, when the Bologna-born Magli siblings - Bruno, Marino and Maria - began handmaking women's shoes in the basement of the family home, drawing on skills passed down from a cobbler father and grandfather. In 1947 the family opened a dedicated factory under the name 'Magli,' and during the same decade added men's shoes to the range, which later became the company's best-selling category. As Bruno took the lead on design, the business name evolved from 'Magli' to 'Bruno Magli.' The first standalone retail store opened in 1967, followed two years later by a move to a larger, modernized Bologna factory. From the mid-1970s, businessman Rolf Grueterich helped the company expand into the American market; by the 1980s and into the 1990s the brand had grown to more than forty stores across Europe, China, the Americas and Australia.