Italian design, athletic comfort.
Michael Toschi has spent nearly three decades proving a good-looking shoe doesn’t have to hurt.
A lawn in the Bay Area
Michael Toschi grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. At fifteen he mowed a lawn for a man who turned out to run a shoe company. He turned down payment in shoes and asked for a job instead.
Over the next decade he learned resoling, design and marketing from the ground up, then spent years traveling, much of it in Italy, consulting for other shoe brands.
A water taxi in Venice
Riding a water taxi through Venice with sore feet, he asked why the best-looking shoes in the world were so hard to wear. Michael Toschi International began with that question: Italian design with the comfort of an athletic shoe.
He funded the company himself, at times sleeping in rental cars to keep it going.
Still made in Italy
The company is based in San Carlos, California, and every pair is still made in Italy. Michael has turned down suggestions to move production somewhere cheaper. He stays loyal to the Italian makers he works with.
The line has grown to belts, leather jackets and small goods, and to engineered comfort systems like CIS, NEST and FIT.
See the technology“I’m a relationship type of person; if I fall in love with you, you’re stuck with me forever.”Michael Toschi, on his Italian suppliers
On film
Two short films from Michael Toschi.
