Moon Boot, the iconic shoe inspired by the Moon landing

In the '70s, they were new. In the 80's everyone had a pair and wore them on the ski slopes, but also in the city on cold winter days. In the '90s, Paris Hilton and Missy Elliot turned them into a cult. Comfortable, functional, colorful, funny, with their unique silhouette, the Moon Boots not only entered the wardrobe of many of us, but, with over 30 million pairs sold and as many copies, are also in the history of fashion. Their name is synonymous with après-ski, but, actually, it evokes one of the most important events in the history of mankind: the landing of the first man on the Moon on July 16, 1969.

Like the rest of the world, Giancarlo Zanatta, leader of Tecnica, a company in the province of Treviso specialized in winter sports equipment and apparel, was fascinated by the event, but it was only the following year that he developed an idea that launched his business among the major players in the industry. He was at Grand Central Station in New York, when he stared at a giant photograph of the boots and the enormous footprints left on the lunar ground by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's boots, and had a brilliant intuition: to recreate that spatial design for after-skiers. It wasn't easy making the product technology and the businessman asked the Como-based companies producing nylon for anoraks to find the right solutions. He discovered heavy, water-resistant nylon, siliconized inside, and filled it with polyurethane foam and obtained ambidextrous footwear. The first prototypes were two: one red, the other blue for children. A few days after the launch at a trade fair in Germany, orders started coming in. It is said that on Sunday Zanatta sold a thousand pairs, six thousand by the end of the year and seventy thousand in Emilia Romagna alone during the great snowfall of 1985. The success was insane.

Moon Boots are basic, funny, low cost, unisex, characterized by waterproof nylon outer lining, foam rubber as thermal insulation, oval and non-slip sole and decorated with a large inscription on the neck of the shoe. Moreover, a great innovation for a pair of after-ski boots, they are colorful. Over the years, many different versions have been made: purple, green, yellow, rainbow, with ladybugs, with butterflies, glitter, with prints inspired by pop art or abstract art, tribute to Star Wars, animalier, hairy, ... Many of these are the result of capsule collections with other brands such as Jeremy Scott, Bourbonese, Jimmy Choo, MSGM, Moncler, 10 Corso Como.

From Paul and Linda McCartney to Paris Hilton, from the Kardashians to Olivia Palermo, everyone wears them. Nowadays as in the past. The vintage shots of Slim Aarons and the many fashion bloggers who show them off on Instagram prove it. 

The product made by Tecnica is part of many people's memories, it is such an iconic item that in 2000 it was exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris among the 100 symbols of 20th-century design and a few years later the Moma in New York included it in its permanent collection for having shaped an era. Almost at the same time, the Court of Milan recognized the boots as an "inimitable design item", forbidding " to imitate the shape, style and design of the unique and original Moon Boot". The word Moon Boot even entered the Zingarelli dictionary, as a proper name that became a common name used to refer to after-ski boots. Despite popularity and awards, the Moon Boot continues to look to the future and evolve. How? Launching its first summer collection. Never stop is the true key to success.

Tecnica, in fact, is not only synonymous with Moon Boot. Its hits are numerous. In 1970 the company introduced to the world Tecnus, the first ski boot featuring double injection. No longer clumsy and bulky old models, the use of two different types of plastic, a harder plastic for the hull and a more flexible plastic for the leg, gave the skier an extraordinary level of comfort, fit and technical precision. Zanatta even turned to Fiat's subcontractors who made the molds for the dashboards and interiors of cars to find the right technology. In the 1980s, the silhouette was taken from the TNT line with which the brand established itself on the market. Later, the brand launched a collection of outdoor shoes. In 1993, by acquiring Löwa, a German brand specialized in hiking and leisure shoes, Tecnica started an expansion phase that goes on even today and has generated over €400 million in turnover in 2017.