In 1911 the Turin entrepreneur Walter Martiny, an engineer of Swiss origin, founded a small factory for the production of rubber articles, subsequently specializing in the distribution of waterproof boots in order to improve working conditions in the fields and rice fields of an Italy still mainly agricultural. Its first logo, typical of the time, was made up of capital letters with flourishes and chiaroscuro.

In 1913 the business merged into the company “Fabbriche Riunite Industria Gomma Torino” specialized, as well as in boots, heels, inflatable dinghies, inner tubes and bicycle tires, toys, also in tires for the nascent automotive sector. Then he began to exclusively produce leisure footwear with rubber soles in the so-called “Superga factory” because the factory stood along the Po, right at the foot of the basilica on the Turin hill. The turning point came in 1926 when the founder married a tennis enthusiast and invented a canvas shoe with a vulcanized rubber sole, thanks to the rubber vulcanization patent of 1844, owned by the American Charles Goodyear. The shoe is the “model 2750”, what everyone knows as “the Superga”, the generic gym and game shoes; the product is presented in the catalogs of the Thirties as “the shoe that breathes” thanks to the use of unlined and breathable cotton.

In 1933 the logo depicted the writing, with typical characters of the time, enclosed in a radial oval; this brand will accompany the first footwear for tennis, basketball, yachting, gymnastics.

In 1935 the logo will show a thicker sunburst and stick capital letters. During the Second World War it also produced gas masks; after the war it resumed production, concentrating again on the manufacture of footwear.

In 1948 the new logo was designed with gothic characters, all lowercase with a capital letter. In 1951 the merger with Pirelli, the majority shareholder, increased production dramatically.

The fortune of the company is due, in addition to research and innovation, also to a careful communication policy; in 1962, Albe Steiner was commissioned to design the logo in the name of minimalism and simplicity. In fact, the historical oval was the background to a white letter “S”, perceived as an optical illusion; the word was composed with uppercase Helvetica. Feeling the new crisis affecting the Italian market, since 1975 Superga has specialized in the sports goods market and, in 1981, officially made its debut in the field of all sportswear. Very difficult years followed, also due to the increasing competition on the market, which has now become global; it now becomes impossible for the Turin industry to stand up to competition with hyper-technological shoes arriving from the US or the East.

In 2001 the Superga logo was sold to the multinational Basic Net, which still owns the worldwide license to produce and distribute the products; the composition of the brand will vary slightly with the change of the letter “S”, the red color and using Helvetica bold.

In 2011, on the occasion of the centenary, the entire communication policy was rethought even if the management deemed it appropriate to re-propose the 1962 Albe Steiner logo in the communication with a slight restyling entrusted to Giovanni Brunazzi.