The Founder
Danilo Bonfanti born in 1943, is an example of the tenancy of a self-made Italian entrepreneur in the Seventies. He started working in the field of shoemaking craftmanship since he was a child, learning when he was only eleven years old the secrets of an artisian craft and manual labor that nowadays no longer exist.
The area of Castelfranco di Sotto has always been a commercially active area since the Fifties and aimed at the world of the creation of footwear. Whoever was walking the streets in those years could see numerous shoemaker's benches with hammers,pliers, shoe awls and other tools of the trade.
Danilo Bonfanti quickly learned how to create shoes entirely hand-made.
Certain machinery, like the cutter, already existed but Danilo since he was a child could not get closer to those machinery. Despite this, he was really fascinated by that world so in the evening when nobody was watching he often tried to use them secretly,in order to learn and understand how they worked.
Until 20 years old he changed several artisan companies, but always working in the shoemaking field.
His initiative,ability in learning,seriousness and his will to work, made him highly demanded by the local shoe factories. At the age of 22 Danilo received a proposal from an entrepreneur who wanted him to join his society, he accepted and started working there for 4 years.
Danilo has always had in his DNA the features of a real entrepreneur: courage and ambition,and those were exactly the reasons that made him willing to take on a new challenge.
In 1947 Danilo Bonfanti with his own efforts and his experience founded the Dover shoe factory, a company that increases year after year and although difficulties, can be proud to tell his own history even after forty years of activity.
The area of Castelfranco di Sotto has always been a commercially active area since the Fifties and aimed at the world of the creation of footwear. Whoever was walking the streets in those years could see numerous shoemaker's benches with hammers,pliers, shoe awls and other tools of the trade.
Danilo Bonfanti quickly learned how to create shoes entirely hand-made.
Certain machinery, like the cutter, already existed but Danilo since he was a child could not get closer to those machinery. Despite this, he was really fascinated by that world so in the evening when nobody was watching he often tried to use them secretly,in order to learn and understand how they worked.
Until 20 years old he changed several artisan companies, but always working in the shoemaking field.
His initiative,ability in learning,seriousness and his will to work, made him highly demanded by the local shoe factories. At the age of 22 Danilo received a proposal from an entrepreneur who wanted him to join his society, he accepted and started working there for 4 years.
Danilo has always had in his DNA the features of a real entrepreneur: courage and ambition,and those were exactly the reasons that made him willing to take on a new challenge.
In 1947 Danilo Bonfanti with his own efforts and his experience founded the Dover shoe factory, a company that increases year after year and although difficulties, can be proud to tell his own history even after forty years of activity.
