“It was back in 1949 when my great-grandfather, Valentino Masolini, started to recycle fabric scraps and military uniforms to make shoes. As a good Friulian, he was a practical, hardworking, determined man: he started a small shoe manufacturing factory and, step by step, his hometown Gonars, a village in the Friulian lowlands, became a real shoe manufacturing district. For four generations, Valentino passed on the family tradition, the art of creating and the passion for doing good.
Then, hard times came along: globalization, the 2008 crisis and customers who chose price over quality.
I felt as if I was suffocating and I left.
As fate would have it, Ethiopia became my new home exactly during the years in which the country was emerging as the new global shoe production center.
I worked with world-known shoe factories and brands, offering my experience and my passion for the shoe industry.
Africa has given me so much: a wonderful family, a lot of friends and great music.
During a business trip in the United States, while I was promoting shoe brands to foreign investors, I realized I had been swallowed by the same globalization that was threatening my own family business.
So, in that moment, I decided to go back. As a good Friulian, I was aware of my responsibilities, so I went back to Friuli to help my parents and our business.
In my last years in Africa, I had been living more sustainably and I was taking daily simple actions to protect the planet. For this reason, when back in Gonars, I started to study a new production model, with low environmental impact and the use of recycled materials instead of animal origin: exactly like my great-grandfather Valentino did in 1949.
This is how RE49 was born: the most sustainable shoe brand in the world, in circular economy.”

Nicola Masolini