Caffeine Dreams
By 2006, Geox employed 30,000, both directly and indirectly, and was producing 16 million pairs of shoes. This year the company is on pace to make 21 million pairs, all of which will have its patented breathable outsole. Polegato credits this remarkable growth—roughly 35 percent year over year—to not just millions of sweaty feet, but also a leadership style that diverges from his country’s way of life.

"I offered this technology to the largest players in the world in the shoe business . . . but nobody believed me."

"One day, people like me in Napoli created espresso and invented pizza. Now if you visit Naples, you drink the best espresso in the world and taste the very fine pizza," he says. "But at the same time, you discover Starbucks opening 10,000 espresso shops and Pizza Hut has 125,000 stores. American business, Italian idea."

While many Old World Italians—and Americans for that matter—fear globalization as the end of local business and culture, Polegato embraces it. "In Italy, we have [much] creativity, many fantasies, yes, even with the food," he says. "But every restaurant changes the food, every window is different from another window."

Polegato also lectures at universities throughout Europe, focusing on intellectual property law. He demands that the Old World’s business schools produce more entrepreneurs like him—individuals armed with new, innovative ideas and management techniques, and the expertise to disseminate these ideas and protect them from pirates. Ironically, in August Nike accused Geox of copying a design element from one of its children’s shoes in the company’s 2007 spring/summer line. As of press time, Polegato was confident that the matter could be resolved amicably.

Today Geox owns more than 50 international patents and, like most global shoe powers, outsources most of its production to lower-cost regions in Eastern Europe and Asia that are building solid reputations as footwear manufacturing centers. To cater to national consumer tastes, the company also creates new collections local to each market.

While he continues to invent new products and processes, his younger brother, Giancarlo, oversees the family’s wine operations. Mario is married to Ana Licia Balzan, who works part-time in Geox’s design division, and has one son, Enrico, 26, who will soon earn his law degree. Enrico also works part-time with the company. Polegato admits that it is too soon to foretell his son’s future in the family businesses—"I’m not very old," he says with a laugh.

After all, Polegato has much work to do in bringing his very American entrepreneurial spirit to the land where it was born. "I consider Geox like my son. I work very passionately: 10-, 20-hour days, I don’t know how much," he says. "But I do it because it’s my idea."

Matt Purdue is executive editor for Worth.