Astorflex

Astorflex makes shoes in Castel d'Ario, Mantova, northern Italy, and says it has done so since 1820. The Travenzoli family still runs it, and the factory stands a stone's throw from the original workshop. Every pair is made in house, which the brand treats as a way of working rather than just a label on the box.

The materials lean natural: soft Italian suede and leather, vegetable-tanned linings and natural crepe soles. Leathers come mainly from tanneries in Tuscany, tanned without metals using oak bark and mimosa. Desert boots and chukkas are the core of the range, and the Greenflex is the one people tend to ask for by name. These are shoes made to be worn and kept in rotation.