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	Summer 2010
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	10 years of Trippen: The Book Sustainable Products Can Defend Europe´s Manufacturing Base
	Another Italian shoe factory closes almost every week at the moment. Many of the remaining German shoe manufacturers are shedding staff or going directly into receivership. Production is shifting to Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia or China. Poland, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland are already too expensive. Along with the machines and their manufacturers, traditional shoemaking knowledge and skills are also disappearing abroad. Soon we will have lost a whole industry forever. The reason for this development is said to be the high level of wages. The consequence is that shoes ´Made in Germany´ or ´Made in Italy´ are almost indistinguishable in design and quality from those ´Made in China´. China has caught up. Nobody knows where this downward spiral will end. Redundancies in Europe weaken consumer confidence and thus make an already bad economic situation even worse. Our approach is to centre on production and design a special product on that basis. Shoes that optimally fulfil their function but whose design is not always so easy to comprehend. Shoes that are no good for the mass market and are therefore not worth copying. Shoes that are fashionable but outlast transient trends. A long-life product.		Another Trippen strategy is to create such a variety of models and variations that we are able to satisfy all the customer´s individual wishes. Here fast and flexible delivery schedules are important. It sounds unprofitable in this day and age, but it gives work to many small family businesses in Italy. That is only possible here in Europe with the corresponding infrastructure, which needs looking after. Only in small production units can we guarantee the prescribed environmental standards and ecological manufacturing techniques and create well-paid jobs with good working conditions. It would be impossible to produce the great diversity of Trippen shoes in big remote factories. And only a highly customisable product made in high quality with a high proportion of craftsmanship stands a chance of remaining competitive despite higher prices. It is time to document the success of Trippen´s concept and design. The big shifts in global production are also paralleled by turning points in the decade of the Trippen story. Together with two craftsmen who are just as dedicated to their trades as we are to our shoes - Jürgen Holzenleuchter with his photographs and Matthias Wittig for graphic design - this book represents an attempt to draw a provisional balance and sharpen minds for coming developments. Images from inside the book