the story

Many years ago I was on holiday with friends on the west coast of Sardinia and during a trip to discover new beaches we arrived in a beautiful bay surrounded by a white sandy beach.
Despite its beauty, the place was almost deserted and when I entered the water I understood why there were so few people.
A few meters from the sandy beach was beginning a platform of volcanic rocks and corals just below the surface that had to be overcome before you can swim.
I took a cut to my feet, some of my friends excoriations and thorns of sea urchins.

Worse with the fins with which it was difficult to walk and made me lose the balance.
I tried the sea-shoes of a friend but I quickly realized that swimming with those shoes was frustrating.
In freestyle, I felt that the thrust of the foot was totally lacking and was increased the drag of the water while swimming breaststroke, I felt that I had lost a lot of thrust.
After that experience, and being a designer, I started thinking about solutions to improve the performance of protective shoes: I cut very short the shoves of an old pair of fins, but they were heavy and uncomfortable to walk on the beach, also they did not give me the same feeling of free and natural swimming that you have swimming barefoot.
Soon I understood that the problem was in the shape of the rounded tip of the shoes that create swirls, produces resistance to advancement and has no grip on the water.
So I glued some rubber and foam surfaces on a shoe like the extension of the upper of the foot, to increase the surface and give a hydrodynamic shape to the tip.

The tests were completely positive and Aqualanders were born.
I felt less resistance to advancement and greater thrust, a huge difference compared to other swimming shoes, but also a positive feeling compared to bare feet, especially pushing.
Above all, I noticed that the shoes empowered the kicking of the feet in the different styles and this was noticeably clear breaststroke where the thrust of the legs is very important.
At the same time, I could walk and run on the beach and walk smoothly on pebbles and rocks, go to the deep water and swim, with the same sensation of natural swimming barefoot, even better.
After having built several prototypes and many tests even with a former olimpic athlete, I filed an invention patent and started searching for a manufacturer.
The first to believe in the idea and to invest in the development of the molds was Daniel Son, manager of Ballop, a Korean company of shoes and sportswear.

The development was not easy due to the distance, the linguistic difficulties and the novelty of the product, but today we can say that Aqualander is the brand for ultimate design sea and swimming shoes that allows everyone to have protection. walk in comfort, be able to run, dive and swim seamlessly and that make you feel a better swimmer.
         no comparison to other beach shoes