The shoe that transforms with the pull of a zip

Ideated and built by designer Edoardo Iannuzzi and manager Gio Giacobbe, and grown thanks to funding by Italian investors, this start-up is as Italian as they come. ACBC – or Advanced Commuted Basic Concept – launched on social media in 2017 with the Zip Shoe. Based on modular technology, the shoe enables the wearer to be creative, unzipping the upper of their shoe to replace it with another. Ten different soles can be combined with over 80 different uppers. The spring/summer 2020 collection comprises 60 women’s models and 42 men’s models, including the best sellers Sonica, Corsa Evo, Los Angeles and the iconic sneaker, where it all began.

Mindful of sustainability, the brand keeps its use of leather to a minimum, featuring it in just two of its signature pieces – Duilio and Sneaker – while the other models use eco-materials and colourful mesh as alternatives. The production process also reduces CO2 emissions. Consequently, the project was selected as finalist at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards (held this September), the prize for sustainable fashion, promoted by Camera Moda Italiana in collaboration with Livia Firth’s Eco-Age. The product price is also sustainable, with soles costing between 50 and 100 euros and the Skins, the uppers, between 45 and 100 euros.

Lightweight, water resistant, highly stress resistant (flexed 160 thousand times in a test compared to an average of 60 thousand times) and, obviously, modular, are the characteristics that define the project, which was born and raised in Italy, though production takes place overseas.