BLUNDSTONE: FROM TASMANIA TO ITALY TOGETHER WITH WP

Throughout its 40-year history, WP Lavori in Corso has centered its entire philosophy on the search for authentic brands that not only have a story to tell but whose true values are something real. One of them is the Australian Blundstone, a brand with more than 150 years of history, which has spread from the depths of rural Tasmania to Italy, Spain and Switzerland thanks to WP. Today Blundstone's boots, famous for being incredibly durable, are a favorite classic in the everyday wardrobe of millions. Their story starts way back in one of the most remote and hostile corners of the earth: nineteenth-century rural Tasmania. To trace the history of the brand and its connection to WP Works in Progress, the main characters in the next episode of WP Stories will be Adam Blake, the brand's Joint Chief Executive Officer, and Nik Jackson, Chief Brand Officer, who visited the Italian company's archives in Bologna, Italy.

The brand's beginnings go back as far as two centuries when, in 1870, John Blundstone and his wife merged their shoe importing and manufacturing store with that of the Cuthbersone brothers, who had established a similar business in Melbourne as early as 1853. The new business took the name John Blundstone & Son, headquartered right in Tasmania, in the town of Hobart. From there on, the brand's journey has been a long one: its Chelsea boots have accompanied Australian soldiers, climbers on Everest, workers in the furnaces and even the dancers of the Sydney Dance Company, becoming over time synonymous with absolute quality and durability. Evolution and change are just two of the main values embraced by Blundstone, such as the ability to adapt its products to the lifestyle needs of an audience that has grown larger and larger over the years, moving from workwear to extreme sports to even streetwear. Blundstone has thus become a cult brand loved around the world, thanks to the most iconic feature of its products, which has remained unchanged from its origins to the present day: durability. Blundstones are built to withstand everything from roads to deserts, from water to mountains. This is indeed the brand's mission, to create an item that can be worn every day, everywhere, adapting not only to every terrain and weather but to every possible situation. That is why when the buyers of WP Lavori in Corso discovered the Made in Tasmania boots, during one of their trips around the world in 1998, they immediately wanted to become their distributors in Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Thanks to its long and impressive tradition, Blundstone can proudly claim an archive holding the best models of the 1990s. It was out of the desire to investigate the Australian brand's heritage that the fourth episode of WP Stories was born. For this event, the Italian retailer's Bologna headquarters were visited by Adam and Nik, who gave an exclusive interview exploring Blundstone's connection with WP and the incredible history of the two brands.