Design Postcards: Superga, the Turin trainers

Did you know that these classic trainers (pronounced sooPERgah) were named after the Basilica that overlooks Turin, where royals are buried and Italy's biggest football tragedy unfolded?

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Turin 1925. Walter Martiny, founder of Superga Rubber Industry, is watching his wife play tennis. She is wearing a classic rope-soled shoe that grips the clay surface but is easily damaged and doesn’t last more than a few games. He decides to make a mould using latex and sulphur to create a new, almost indestructible, vulcanised rubber sole. The resulting shoe becomes the Superga 2750 – a model that is still in production today and is known simply as La Superga.

Sadly, history has not bothered to record the name of Mrs Martiny, and the company, now owned by Basic Net, doesn’t seem to have jotted it down either.

The erasure of women from history is a whole other post, for another time. For now it’s back to Mr Martiny. In 1911, he has learned of the existence of a new technology - invented by Charles Goodyear – the vulcanisation of natural rubber. He has brought the concept to Italy and taken over a shed near his home in Turin. His new company is named Superga, after the famous Basilica that overlooks the city.

To begin with, Superga makes mostly rubber boots, which are perfect for the women in the rice fields of the neighbouring Po Valley (which today produces 50 per cent of all the rice grown in the EU and 94 per cent of the Italian market). The boots reduce the problems of disease and infection. Superga also makes children’s toys and inner tubes for bicycles.

Following the invention of the tennis shoe, the company continues to expand, and in 1962 the logo (still in use today) is created by Albe Steiner. By the 1970s the company is making shoes for athletes in all sports and a campaign to spread the brand as a fashion item is born; there are collaborations with Fendi and Swarovski. In 2019 Farrow & Ball creates a range for Superga featuring its colours Charlotte’s Locks, Nancy’s Blushes and De Nimes.

The name “Superga” derives from “Serrapergia”, a word of Germanic-Latin origin which means “mountain between the hills”. Building of the Basilica was begun in 1717, following the French invasion of Turin by Louis XIV in 1706 – during which Duke Vittorio Amedeo II and Prince Eugenio of Savoia-Soisson, leaders of the local army, had climbed to the top of the hill to supervise the battlefield below.

In the small church the Duke knelt in front of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary and vowed to build a bigger church in her honour if their forces won. And so the first stone was laid 11 years later – but only after the hilltop was reduced by 40m to create a flat area large enough to build on. The wooden statue of Mary is still inside the Basilica today.

Many royals of the House of Savoy are now buried there, although the first King of unified Italy, Vittorio Emmanuele II, lies in Rome.

But there is one other story about the Superga, which is one of the most famous symbols of the city of Turin, that you should know.

The Tragedy of Superga happened on 4 May 1949, when a plane carrying the entire Torino FC football squad (most of whom also played for the Italian national team) crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica. All 31 men on the flight were killed, including the English head coach Leslie Livesley, the manager, Erno Egri Erbstein, a Hungarian refugee, and three sports journalists.

At the request of all their rivals, Torino were proclaimed winners of the 1948-49 Serie A season and every club, including Torino themselves, played their youth teams in the four remaining games.

The following season, the other top Italian teams were each asked to donate a player to Torino and the resulting national squad travelled to the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil by ship.

Today the Superga dominates the Torinese skyline. We see it within minutes when we leave the airport to drive to our house and I know I’m home when it appears. At night it shines down from above the city and guides us home after an evening out.

I hope you are enjoying this mini series of Design Postcards from around the world. If this is your first one do check out the round gardens of Copenhagen, the terrazzo eggs of Venice and the prolific legacy of William Morris.

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