Inline Skates Mariani

Mariani Racing BootThe Mariani firm was born in 1997. At that time, the only molded skates come from the Netherlands (Viking brand) or from Australia (Bont, still standing). Most of the rest of the inline skates are standard and still basic. Davide Mariani is a famous skater, known in France for his appearances at Rennes sur Roulettes (already!) But his career comes to an end and hes got to think about his professional future: he becomes an employee in a pharmaceutical firm.It didnt last long: I was bored and my heart was in the inline skate racing I went back to manufacturing molded shoes came almost naturally. It was also a means for me to come back to the skating world!Its been more than 18 years now. The firm quickly developed and it became one of the leading inline racing boot manufacturer in the world.We are five so far at the Mariani work plan, and each ones got his duty. Its not easy to recruit, as manual jobs dont attract young people anymore: and yet I can tell you that its far from being assembly-line work!Davide Mariani has one golden rule, Never recruit a skater or ex-skater. And this for a simple reason, industrial espionage: There are too many risks that someone tries to copy all the accumulated knowledge. The Mariani models are ones of the most expansive on the market. Some will say that its the price to pay for quality. Its more complex than that:I have to face a constant fluctuation of the cost of raw material, a fluctuation thats quite increasing nowadays, Davide explains. But I only want to work with Italian material in order to control its quality as much as possible. Thus I have to find the fairest final price…Indeed its a hard exercise at a time when the clients salaries tend to stagnate. Product quality, these are not empty words:None of the products get out of the firm without having been in my hands. Its a question of respect.Davide is still close to competition, very involved in how his shoes will respond to the feet of the skaters. What makes him react furiously too is the not-so-legal competition with molded shoes manufacturers who are unscrupulous about the Italian tax.He is full of praises for the skaters who help him go ahead. For ten years, between 1998 and 2008, he had collaborated with Yann Guyader, particularly when the latter scoured Europe with the eponymous Team, together with Stefano Galliazzo and Garikoitz Lerga.Yann helped us to perfect a vacuum pack production technique enabling to hug the form of the foot even better. His diagnoses and remarks were very precise. And even when his feet were hurting, he would still do the tests!Other French take part in this return of favor, like for example Gwendal Le Pivert: the sprinter has been skating with prototypes for a year now. This phase of product development is obviously essential to go ahead: no evolution without tests! A stagnating manufacturer is condemned to decline. This is certainly not the case of Mariani who produces 1.500 pairs of skates per year.