He passed away on New Year's Eve, the shoemaker of divas first and then great cycling champions. In the 1960s, Franco Bedulli custom-made shoes for Anquetil, Motta and Gimondi, as well as Dancelli, Boifava and many others. But before that, he had made shoes for Maria Callas, Grace Kelly and many other entertainment divas.

Bedulli died in the Don Pinzoni nursing home in Mompiano, a suburb of Brescia where he had been hospitalized for just over a month: a heart failure took him away. The funeral will be held this morning at 10:30 am in the Church of San Giulio Prete at Villaggio Sereno, the neighborhood where he had lived for decades.

To pay tribute to him, we propose an interview-story that colleague Paolo Venturini had dedicated to him a year and a half ago in the pages of Il Giornale di Brescia.

From the shoes made for cinema divas, performers, La Scala dancers and princesses, he drew inspiration to create the shape of shoes for cycling champions. This is the incredible professional story of Franco Bedulli, a shoemaker originally from Mantua, but adopted by Brescia, who in the 60s and 70s became the main artisan shoemaker for cycling champions. But while many cycling history enthusiasts remember the artisan shoes made in Brescia by Bedulli, almost no one knows his professional past.

The Origins
We went to visit him in Villaggio Sereno, the Brescia neighborhood where he has lived for several decades, to have him tell his story. "My father was a shoemaker in Sarginesco, a hamlet in the municipality of Castellucchio in the province of Mantua and the passion for footwear infected me from childhood. I learned the basics of the trade from Master Simonazzi in Mantua, who saw how good I was and suggested I go to Milan to propose my shoes. There, he told me, they'll pay you four times what you could ask here. So one day, in the early 1950s, I gathered my courage, took a pair of women's shoes I had made and went to Milan by train."

"I knocked on the door of the Quintè laboratory, a famous Milanese shoe atelier located in Galleria del Corso 2, near Piazza Duomo and La Scala Theater. I was received by Commendator Adolfo Quintè, to whom I showed my women's shoes - Bedulli still recalls. He examined them thoroughly, carefully observed the details of the craftsmanship, measured them, then gave me a perplexed look: boy, did you really make these shoes yourself? Of course, I replied, sweating from emotion. He paused for a long time and then said: come next week with your tools and glues, you'll make some shoes in our workshop, we'll teach you a trade. The price for your work won't be a problem. Instead of teaching me a trade, however, they immediately had me make a pair of shoes with precise measurements to participate in a world competition in Monte Carlo. The shoe I made won first prize and Quintè gifted it to Princess Grace of Monaco because it was made with her measurements. Later, I made a special one with inlaid diamonds. I continued working for Quintè, creating exclusive models for Abbe Lane, Maria Callas and many others. Quintè never told me who those custom-made shoes were for, I discovered that on my own."

In Brescia
Bedulli then decides to move to Brescia to be more convenient for trips to Milan. With his first earnings, he opens a small workshop on Via Cremona, coincidentally across from Pietro Serena's mechanical workshop, a famous bicycle frame builder. In the 1960s, the workshop was called "the Poor Club" to distinguish it from Meschini's workshop, a meeting place for wealthy Pedale Bresciano athletes (Bongioni and Vianelli). The Via Cremona Club was frequented among others by Dancelli, Boifava and Kazianka. The latter became friendly with Bedulli and one day proposed that he make cycling shoes.

"I took inspiration from the shape of women's shoes that I knew how to make to create shoes for cyclists. Back then, people pedaled on their toes and the shoes had to maintain that inclination. Until then, cycling shoes were flat and soft. I gave them an inclined shape by inserting a steel soul into the upper. The first customers were Brescia cyclists, then they became all the greats of the time, Gimondi, Motta, and Anquetil. All except Merckx, who preferred to have shoes made by a friend in Belgium. In those years, orders came from all over the world, both professionals and amateurs wanted my shoes."

Without a Patent
Bedulli is too humble and modest to trademark that artisan product, the only indulgence he allows himself is the tongue under the laces that features an inverted B, Bedulli's symbol that looks like a heart. The Brescia-adopted shoemaker is not very cunning and especially not rich enough to patent that model which, in a few years, major brands would copy, using different and more technological materials and marketing at a price with which Bedulli could not compete. He gradually abandons production for major champions, retiring to his cobbler's shop in Villaggio Sereno until retirement. What remains is the satisfaction of having dressed the feet of great entertainment divas and cycling champions.