History
Joe Famolare, a third generation shoemaker, was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He started working for the family shoe business at the age of 12. Joe learned the art of design and pattern cutting from his father, Joseph Sr., a respected artisan and technician, who established his successful shoe engineering company in 1934.
In the 1970’s, Famolare shoes reflected a new attitude of footwear - that a shoe should be comfortable aid to natural movement, not merely a fashion accessory. Joe Famolare’s vision went beyond the notion of fashion for fashion sake. With the invention of theGet Thereshoe, he achieved a new aesthetic in casual fashion. TheGet Therealso proved to be a radical innovation in functional footwear. It’s resilient four-wave sole acted as an extension of the foot, transferring the body’s weight from heel to arch and from the ball to the toes. TheGet Thereabsorbed the shock to the foot and rolled you forward with each step. The anatomically contoured inner-sole cradled the foot and provided hours of comfort even when walking at a brisk clip.
During Joe Famolare’s career he was recognized in the fashion business as an innovator. His designs, which were synonymous with fashion and comfort, are in the permanent collection at theSmithsonian Instituteof Washington,DC, theCostume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Artin New York and theCincinnati Museum of Artin Ohio. In 1973, Joe Famolare received theCoty American Fashion Critics Awardfor his innovative molded clog. He was inducted into theFootwear News Hall of Famein 1995.