Brands to know: Anderson’s

Specializing in fine leather and woven belts, Anderson’s has been making belts in Parma, Italy—and nowhere else—for the last 50 years.

Parma, located in Northern Italy, is known for the quality of its food and leather goods. And that quality is built on the same passions, skills and stubborn dedication to traditions worth defending. Steeped in those traditions, Anderson’s combines modern techniques with the experience and tradition of Italian leather artisans to produce the highest quality of design.

The company was founded by Carlo Valenti, one of a long line of Parma leather workers. His factory (and the people who worked in it) quickly established a reputation for quality and craftsmanship. They developed new techniques and finishes, matched handcrafting with expert tooling, new technologies with the experienced eye.

A dedicated Anglophile, Valenti named the company after Anderson and Sheppard, his favored Savile Row maker. By the late 1980s, Anderson’s was ready to develop from a factory to its own brand, and to build it around what would become an iconic design. It started with the launch of the multi-colored woven belt made clear Anderson’s craft and commitment to innovation.

“We understood that this was really new,” says Riccardo Valenti, CEO of the family-owned company. “It stated immediately the personality and character of the brand. It was fresh and modern but also authentic because it was made in our factory.”

Riccardo continues, “To make the best belt requires the perfect balance of the past, your skills and identity, your heritage, personality and procedures; the present, your people and the tools they use; and the future. You have to improve and you have to improve for tomorrow. And that is pretty much what it takes to make the best of anything.”

Anderson’s belts—from the multi-color stretch belt, in hundreds of different combinations, to traditional hand-tooled saddle leather belts—now sells across the world.