Source: CCIAA Treviso – Belluno Studies and Statistics Office based on data from the Association of Sportsystem and Entrepreneurship of Montebellunese and Asolano, Infocamere, Studies and Intesa
San Paolo and Istat-Coeweb
The origins of the Sportsystem industrial district of Asolo and Montebelluna date back to the time of the Republic of Venice, when, following the reorganisation of the Marca Trevigiana by
the Serenissima, the local population found it more profitable to work with wool, leather and wood than with the more traditional agricultural activities, setting up Schools of Arts and Crafts. The
most successful of these was certainly the guild of “calegheri” (shoemakers) which, developing over time, formed the basis for today’s sports shoe district.
The district, which has been officially recognised at regional level since 2003, currently extends from the foot of Montello to the course of the river Piave over a territory of 15
municipalities in the Province of Treviso, plus the adjoining municipality of Alano di Piave in the Belluno area (as per Regional Law 13/2014).
The District’s perhaps best-known production at national and international level is the ski boot. Today, however, the District is no longer only oriented towards the production of footwear
and snow equipment, but has been able to renew itself by expanding the range of its production: from football, tennis and basketball shoes to the outdoor and everyday footwear segment. Over the
years, the company has also
Over the years, the company has also added clothing lines (both technical and non-technical) as well as sports equipment, the result of ongoing research and the application of cutting-edge
technologies and materials.
In addition to this, there is a whole induced activity involving manufacturers of processing machinery, design and planning studios, wholesale and retail businesses and other entities, not
necessarily of an economic nature, which contribute to the maintenance of the district: incubators, associations, training bodies, etc..
These include incubators, associations, training bodies, etc., as well as the Museum of Boots and Sports Footwear, which preserves and enhances the district’s historical and cultural
heritage. The coexistence of different companies in terms of size, strategy and product type – from multinationals to craft workshops – is the feature that has distinguished the district and still
characterises its composition today.
In the municipalities of the district, on the basis of data from the Business Register processed by Infocamere, at the end of 2020, there were 1,256 company headquarters and 63 dependent local
units involved in core activities (as identified in the 2014 regional recognition measure), employing a total of almost 4,800 people in the area.
An analysis conducted by Intesa San Paolo on a sample of 131 companies in the district in 2019 shows a turnover of more than EUR 2.8 billion for the companies in the sample, up by +6% on 2017
(median values).
The district’s strong vocation for internationalisation is confirmed by the provincial export data. In 2019, footwear and sporting goods exports from the province of Treviso approached €1.4
billion in line with 2018 levels. In 2020, the year of the global pandemic, like the other sectors of the Fashion System, footwear and sporting goods were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic:
sales of footwear dropped by -14.3% (-154 million) and those of sporting goods by -17.2% (-53 million).
More than two thirds of sales went to EU countries and in particular to France (15.4% of the total exported by the sector, down -18.8% compared to 2019), Germany (14% of the total; -15.8%
year-on-year) and Spain (6.5%; -20.6%). Outside the EU, the United States, the third largest market for the sector, absorbed 8.4% of sales for the year, slightly below 2019 levels (-2%).
Conversely, exports to the UK, the sector’s fifth largest market, fell by -14.6% (-12.5 million).
