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Federico Zechetto,
owner of DIAMANT (DMT), has a passion for
building great cycling shoes, as its been his profession
for 25 years.
During his tours of
bike stores in the early years there were many requests
for top quality cycling shoes from his clients. Zechetto
returned to Italy and started a cycling shoe business,
naming his new business DIAMANT, or Diamond.
"Cycling shoes were a
lot different then, "he explained. "Black leather uppers
with laces and laminated leather; we used to make 30
pairs a day, all handmade."
Zechetto found an
outlet for his passion via a relationship with a major
Italian footwear manufacturer. "We got a good reputation
for quality and Diadora asked us to build some custom
shoes for them. We built the first Diadora shoes for
Giovanni Battaglin and brought them to him during the
Giro d’Italia, which he went on to win with our custom
shoes."
“As the trends in
cycling footwear began to move towards using automatic
pedals, we moved away from the old-style black leather
shoes. We started to use more rigid, durable uppers on
new soles that would transmit power more efficiently and
this really changed cycling footwear" related Zechetto.
DIAMANT
went on to work for all of the major brands of cycling
footwear. After many years of making mid-range cycling
shoes under the DMT name, and leaving the
high-end to others, Zechetto decided to launch his own
DMT brand in 1996, more as a matter of pride than
a business decision. "We didn't have a big image (as
DMT) and perhaps the industry didn’t have enough
respect for our work as we built shoes for others, so we
just decided to show what we could do. "
Initially, DMT
launched one road model, the R3 with a 3-velcro upper,
then added another 3-velcro model, the CRONOX in
1998. R3 & CRONOX have best in class
features like a moulded heel cup and opposing velcro
straps. DMT also developed an innovative
Multi-System sole with specific inserts for each type of
pedal system. |
