L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano O n t h e n e w e s t Nike Air Force 1 ' 0 7 L X Vibram, down b y t h e h e e l and just below the word Air, sits a small yellow octagon. It belongs to Vibram, the Italian company based in the p r o v i n c e o f V a r e s e t h a t made the shoe's rubber out- sole; Nike has been working with it since 2023, when the U l t r a f l y b e c a m e t h e f i r s t Nike running shoe to use a Vibram sole. The Air Force 1 v e r s i o n w e n t o n s a l e t h i s March for $140, which is a l o n g w a y , i n e v e r y s e n s e , f r o m t h e p r o b l e m V i t a l e B r a m a n i w a s t r y i n g t o solve nearly ninety years ago on an Alpine rock face. In September 1935, Bra- mani joined a party of nine- t e e n c l i m b e r s a t t e m p t i n g Punta Rasica, in Val Bre- gaglia, when a storm caught them on the mountain and the ropes froze to the rock. They could go neither up nor down, and six men died of e x p o s u r e . B r a m a n i , a Milanese mountain guide, s u r v i v e d a n d c a m e a w a y c o n v i n c e d t h a t t h e i r footwear had been part of the problem: climbers at the t i m e u s u a l l y w o r e h e a v y boots fitted with iron nails f o r t h e a p p r o a c h a n d changed into lighter rope- s o l e d s h o e s o n t h e r o c k , which worked until the sur- face became wet or icy. On that mountain, neither had been enough. B r a m a n i l o o k e d t o c a r t i r e s f o r t h e s o l u t i o n , because rubber could grip where nails and rope could not, and he took the idea to Franco Brambilla, who would later become manag- ing director of Pirelli. In 1937 Pirelli's laboratories produced a sole of vulcan- ized rubber cut into deep, cross-shaped blocks, broad e n o u g h t o k e e p p l e n t y o f rubber against the ground but separated by channels that let snow and grit escape instead of packing under- neath the foot. The tread looked so much like a tank track that it became known as the carrarmato. Bramani tested it that same year on the northwest face of Pizzo B a d i l e w i t h E t t o r e C a s - tiglioni, and when the busi- ness followed, he gave it his own name in abbreviated form: VI from Vitale and BRAM from Bramani. B y 1 9 5 4 , t h e i d e a h a d reached K2: the boots worn b y t h e I t a l i a n e x p e d i t i o n that made the first ascent of the world's second-highest mountain had carrarmato soles, and after a test like that, Vibram hardly needed a sales pitch. The company moved its factory to Albiz- z a t e i n 1 9 5 7 a n d b e g a n building its American pres- ence a few years later, enter- ing a partnership in 1964 with Quabaug, a rubber m a n u f a c t u r e r i n N o r t h Brookfield, Massachusetts. Quabaug had been making soles for military boots since the Second World War and continued doing so under t h e V i b r a m n a m e ; h a l f a c e n t u r y l a t e r , i n 2 0 1 5 , Vibram bought the company outright. By Vibram's own count, more than a thousand man- ufacturers now use its soles, among them Red Wing and Timberland at the workwear end of the market, but also Moncler, Jimmy Choo and Veja. The group sells in 120 c o u n t r i e s a n d p r o d u c e s m o r e t h a n f o r t y m i l l i o n pairs of soles a year; world- wide sales passed $340 mil- l i o n i n 2 0 2 2 , w h i l e t h e Albizzate company reported revenues of about $232 mil- lion in 2024 after a weaker 2023. O n e l a s t c u r i o s i t y : Vibram's own symbol, the octagon, was introduced in 1947 and turned yellow in 1969, when the color was used to identify the rubber c o m p o u n d c a l l e d M a r c a Oro, or gold label. The octa- g o n i t s e l f w a s b o r r o w e d from Milan's Galleria Vitto- rio Emanuele II, whose cen- tral crossing opens beneath the glass dome in exactly that shape. I n 1 8 4 7 , w o r k i n g i n T u r i n , A s c a n i o S o b r e r o m a d e a m i s t a k e c h e m i s t s o c c a s i o n a l l y m a d e w i t h a n e w s u b s t a n c e : h e tasted it. He touched a drop o f t h e o i l y l i q u i d t o h i s tongue and was rewarded with what he later called "a m o s t p u l s a t i n g , v i o l e n t headache." The substance was nitroglycerin, though Sobrero called it pirogliceri- na, "pyroglycerine," after making it by adding glycerin to nitric and sulfuric acids. Sobrero had been born in Casale Monferrato in 1812 and trained first as a doctor before turning to chemistry in Paris, where he worked u n d e r T h é o p h i l e - J u l e s P e l o u z e . O n J a n u a r y 2 5 , 1847, he wrote to Pelouze about his discovery, and the following month he took a sample to the Academy of Sciences in Turin. By then, he knew how dangerous it was: a drop heated in a test tube had exploded, driving glass into his face and hands. S o b r e r o ' s c o n c l u s i o n w a s simple enough: t h e s u b - stance was too unstable to be useful, and people should leave it alone. Alfred Nobel, however, did not. He had also studied in Pelouze's laboratory and began experimenting with nitroglycerin around 1860, eventually finding a way to make it easier to handle by absorbing it into a porous material. In 1867, he patent- e d d y n a m i t e . S o b r e r o , watching the accidents that followed early nitroglycerin use, was deeply uneasy and wrote that he was "almost ashamed" to admit he had discovered it. Nobel, howev- er, never tried to take that discovery from him: he later employed Sobrero as a con- s u l t a n t a t h i s A v i g l i a n a dynamite works, gave him a lifetime pension and helped pay for a bust in his honor. T h e v i o l e n t h e a d a c h e S o b r e r o h a d s u f f e r e d i n T u r i n w a s a l s o a c l u e t o another use entirely: nitro- glycerin widens blood ves- sels, and from 1878 the Lon- d o n p h y s i c i a n W i l l i a m Murrell began prescribing tiny doses for angina. It is still used in pills and sprays today. Nobel himself eventually became one of its patients: on October 25, 1896, only weeks before his death, he wrote to his assistant Ragnar S o h l m a n t h a t h i s d o c t o r s had prescribed nitroglycerin for his heart "to be taken internally," and wondered whether this was not "the irony of fate." Ascanio Sobrero's work in nineteenth-century Turin led to the discovery of nitroglyc- erin, a substance he quickly realized was far more unstable than useful (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) Before Nobel: Ascanio Sobrero and the invention of nitroglycerin Vibram: the Italian sole under a Nike, and how it got there A mountaineering boot fitted with a Vibram sole recalls the company's origins in Alpine climbing; right, the distinctive tread and yellow octagonal logo that became the brand's signature. (Original images created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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