The story begins in 1974 when Mauro founded Sani Buttero to make the kind of shoes he wanted to wear himself - elegant, simple, modern design with a deeply Italian sensibility for luxury and quality. He named his fledgling company Buttero in homage to the Italian cowboys, the "Butteri", who once roamed the Tuscan hills and hired the finest artisanal shoemakers to work in his factory. Today the company is in the hands of the second and third generation, who sat next to Mauro in the workshop as children. Buttero is a family business with a global outlook and hyper-local production - all shoes are handmade in Cerreto Guidi. Many employees begin and end their working lives with the company and feel ownership of the Buttero name.