My Mancini: Craftsmanship with Sole

From Hippie Van to Italian Icon: Matteo Mancini, founder of MY MANCINI, tells the story of Radical Craftsmanship Behind the Made in Italy Brand.

By GIOVANNA G. BONOMO

June 2025

Italy’s shoemaking dynasties never saw them coming. Matteo Mancini didn't grow up in an atelier—he grew up in Cuneo, surrounded by factories, not artisans. "When I asked my parents to invest in a broken-down hippie van for my customization idea, my father thought I was insane," Matteo laughs. He shares a memory from his own childhood. "My father always bought me shoes eighteen sizes too big—I looked like I was wearing bowling shoes!" he says, recalling how his mother would complain about the two fingers of empty space. "My father actually spent more on cotton for stuffing than on the shoes themselves." That van, however, became the birthplace of a movement—one that would redefine Italian craftsmanship for a new generation.

By 2013, the 20-year-old business student had emptied his parents' €8,000 loan into that battered van, armed with paintbrushes and a radical question: What if shoes could be as unique as the people wearing them? What began as a sidewalk hustle rode the first wave of a booming personalized footwear market—now valued at $6.8 billion (Grand View Research). But Matteo couldn't scale it alone.

Enter Alessia Mancini, Matteo's multi-talented sister, who joined two years after My Mancini launched, returning to Italy at 20 years old after years of traveling the world as a talented singer. "Without my sister, none of this would have been possible," Matteo admits. "I had the vision, but Alessia was the one who built the engine." While Matteo focused on the brand's creative and commercial side, Alessia took charge of production, streamlined the lab, and revolutionized their digital presence—even developing the configurator tool that would later become their growth catalyst. "She gave us the structure to turn a handmade experiment into a scalable business," he says.

Their partnership defined My Mancini's next chapter. The pre-COVID years marked the "customization boom," with Matteo's hand-painted sneakers tapping into a key insight: 72% of consumers would pay 20% more for personalized shoes (Deloitte, 2022). By 2020, they'd expanded to 14 stores across Italy. But the real breakthrough came in 2022, when they pivoted from customizing third-party brands to creating their own entirely Italian-made line. "People didn't just want customization—they wanted something theirs," Matteo explains.

While competitors like Nike relied on algorithms, My Mancini doubled down on human touch. Alessia's configurator tool transformed customers into co-creators, letting them design every detail—from fabrics to hidden sole messages. The result? A "volcanic explosion" of growth, with Florence as their new epicentre. "Today, we're not just a brand; we're a dynamic team of artisans, coders, and dreamers," Matteo says, "helping people wear their stories."

Where everyone saw a beat-up van, Matteo saw his mobile atelier, but the real breakthrough came when younger sister Alessia joined to manage production. "While I was the dreamer painting sneakers in parking lots, she was the whip-smart operations brain," Matteo says. Alessia's entry wasn't planned—she had returned from London feeling crushed after abandoning her music dreams. "At eighteen, I moved to London with one clear goal: to truly live through my music, not just survive. I didn't want to scrape by; I wanted a full, free, independent life. But soon I was faced with a hard truth: music wouldn't give me the life I dreamed of, only a constant struggle to get by," she reflects. "I came back to Italy feeling lost."

Meanwhile, her brother Matteo had just started his business. They were a small team of four, running two seasonal stores. He couldn't stand seeing me stuck at home, wallowing, so he pulled me in with him. I was completely against it. In my mind, there was no plan B." But when Matteo fell sick and told her, "You have to take my place," everything changed. At nineteen, she found herself thrust into the operation. "I found myself managing everything alone, and to my surprise, I did it. That day, I learned a lesson I now share with every young person I meet: everything you go through, even what feels like your biggest failure, never truly is. Every step, even the painful ones, shapes who you become."

Alessia remembers her father's wisdom during those dark days: "When I was at my lowest, crying and feeling lost, my father told me, 'It hurts now, but one day you'll thank this experience.' And today, I can honestly say he was right. Without that moment, without the struggle, I wouldn't be capable of doing what I do now." Their dynamic defined My Mancini's DNA as they scaled from roadside stand to 14 stores. "My real turning point came during COVID. The stores were shut, we were stuck at home, and we didn't even have a functioning website. It had never been built. Matteo wasn't into tech at all, but I was. So I locked myself in for four days, day and night, and built our first website from scratch. No experience, no training, just curiosity and the will to keep going. Thanks to that site, we kept selling even during lockdown. It saved us. And when everything reopened, I came back stronger."

From that point, the siblings clearly divided their roles. "Matteo is the visionary artist and frontman with brilliant commercial instincts but little structure. I'm the opposite: precise, organized, and analytical. I took charge of everything chaotic and brought order," Alessia explains. "We challenge and support each other, and that's what's allowed us to grow so quickly and solidly." She reflects on their partnership: "My Mancini was born from the meeting of two very different but perfectly complementary forces. Without either one of us, we wouldn't be here."

The Heart of the Brand: Embracing Imperfections & Emotions

For Matteo and Alessia, true craftsmanship lies in imperfection. "A machine can print a perfect shoe. But where's the life in that?" Each My Mancini piece carries subtle, human touches—a slightly asymmetrical stitch, a hand-painted detail. "We Don't Make Shoes—We Make Stories." In an era where mass-produced sneakers dominate, Mancini's business thrives on radical intimacy. "Most customization is a lie," he scoffs, recalling commercial online configurators. "They ask, 'Blue or black?' But if you want lighter blue? Or to hand-paint over it? Impossible. That's not personalization—that's a multiple-choice test." My Mancini tells a different story. Clients collaborate with us for hours, sometimes days, embedding inside jokes, family portraits, even pet paw prints into designs. One American tourist wearing her My Mancinis in Rome caught the eye of a local who stopped her to ask where she got her shoes, leading her to take the next train to Florence just to visit and design her own shoes with us.

"Our best-selling ‘flaw’? A client insisted we stitch her dog’s lopsided ear into the leather—exactly as it was. The customer cried when  he saw it. That’s the magic."

Even the Bocelli family—Italy's musical royalty—is among the clientele that seeks out My Mancini's atelier. Matteo modestly retrieves Veronica Bocelli's custom denim heels, his fingers tracing the delicate heart details embedded in the leather. "For Veronica," he says with quiet reverence, "each stitch carries their family's legacy of beauty." The shoes aren't just footwear; they're heirlooms crafted for a family whose name graces the world's greatest stages. When exceptional skill meets discerning taste, the result transcends commerce—it becomes art worthy of those who shape culture itself.

While competitors chase scalability, Mancini bets on flaws. He proudly displays two "matching" shoes where the hand-painted irises intentionally differ. "Machines can stamp out 1,000 identical pairs," he says. "But humans? We make stories. A client insisted we stitch her dog's lopsided ear into the leather—exactly as it was. The customer cried when she saw it. That's the magic." It's a bold stance in a market drowning in cheap alternatives. He recounts how gummy candy shops—once trendy—now shutter nationwide after saturating cities with sameness. "That's what happens when you prioritize quantity and sameness over soul," Mancini shrugs.

The Future: Less and More

"Today, I see our future increasingly abroad," says Alessia. "We have so much in our hands, and more importantly, we hold the keys to make it happen. What I'm sure of is that as long as Matteo and I remain who we are, we're not afraid of anything. No one understands you like family. And maybe that's the most powerful thing we have: in the toughest moments, we show up, we support one another, we cover each other's backs. That is our key." Despite plans for a US flagship, Matteo rejects rampant expansion. "5,000 stores would ruin us," he says. "I want collaborators, not customers. When someone flies oceans to design with us? That's how craftsmanship survives." The future of footwear isn't just about style—it's about story. Brands that merge craftsmanship with tech (like My Mancini) are winning because they turn customers into co-creators. "When you walk in our shoes, you're not just wearing leather—you're carrying a piece of yourself."

ARTISAN 2.0: The My Mancini Experience

Proprietary tech fuels the brand’s growth. Clients design shoes via WILLY, an in-house configurator (accessible online or in-store on a mega touchscreen), choosing everything from leather grades to hand-painted portraits. "We’re not just selling shoes—we’re selling an experience. A client steps into a My Mancini store, gets measured (a 40-second process), and then collaborates with designers via text or WhatsApp to refine their vision.

The result? A shoe that’s not just worn but felt—infused with personal meaning, or even tributes to loved ones. With My Mancini, anyone can create a shoe that’s truly one-of-a-kind. "I call it ‘Artisan 2.0 because it merges true craftsmanship—rooted in skill and quality—with the power of technology. The best part? Customers see their sneaker before our artisans handcraft it for them. We want you to feel part of the creation," says Matteo. "So that when your custom shoes arrive, they're more than footwear - they're a memory."