Born in Ferrara in 1912, Severino Artioli, at the age of seven, starts going to workshop after school in order to learn the craft of shoemaking. After the war, he acquires a bench with all the necessary tools and start working on his own.
The shoes, in fact, are still all handmade, customized, and the cases of industries in the shoe production process are rare.
Among these, is born in Ferrara, one of the first shoe factories prêt-à-porter, the Zenith, which produces with U.S. hired machinery.
Severino Artioli is assumed by this shoe factory, and begins a rapid carrier growth within it. The hopes to become director, after the sudden death of the owner, which Artioli was the favourite, were disregarded by the choice, for this assignment, of another tech. Severino Artioli, hurt and disappointed, resigns from Zenith and then begins a long period of counselling in different shoe factories in the central and northern Italy. In 1932, Artioli becomes manager of the Calzaturificio di Tradate, a rather large company owning shops in Milan, Turin and Rome.
Sometimes after, he leaves Tradate and works for the Battistini factory in Forlì, where in 1936 was born his son Vito. Severino, to be exempted from military call, in 1939 returns to the Calzaturificio di Tradate as general manager, because they produced the footwear for the Italian army.
Meanwhile, the desire of creating his own factory was still smouldering and just one day after the war finished Severino went to the owner and announced he was setting up on his own.
