Nordica

Italian ski boot manufacturer. During the 1960s, after a new type of ski boot was invented in Austria that substituted metal clasps for laces, Nordica of Montebelluna (Treviso) was the first firm to adopt them in Italy. Founded in 1938 by the brothers Adriano and Oddone Vaccari, it began by manufacturing footwear intended for leisurewear but, after a pause the war when they furnished boots for the military, the company focused in particular on the production of ski boots. At the end of the 1960s came a great innovation: ski boots made entirely of polyurethane. In 1989, the company was bought by the Benetton group and in 1990 it launched a range of sportswear for winter and summer. Beating competition from Atomic and Head, the Tecnica group took over Nordica, which had been put up for sale by Benetton. The transfer became operative at the beginning of February 2003, at a cost of approximately 38 million euros. On the same date, Benetton purchased 10% of Tecnica.