COFRA Safety Footwear: Eight Decades of Innovation
Established in Italy 85 years ago, COFRA has grown to become one of the world's most trusted and widely-recognised brands of high-quality safety footwear and workwear. Tiger Safety proudly supplies a carefully-chosen selection of the industry-leading brand's best footwear, each pair of which is designed to offer you superlative protection in even the most demanding of work environments.
COFRA began life as Cortelgomma back in 1938, when the fledgling brand was founded by Ruggiero Cortellino. Starting with a small workshop, Cortellino began handcrafting heavy-duty work shoes and selling them to people in his local area. As materials of all kinds were already becoming scarce as the country braced itself for war, Cortellino did what all naturally-talented entrepreneurs do: he improvised. The first pairs of shoes to emerge from his workshop featured uppers made using old military uniforms and soles made from discarded military-truck tyres.
Despite the limitations that such materials would seem to have placed upon him, Cortellino was absolutely determined to create better shoes for people working in many different industries. With innovation that can rightly be described as visionary, he experimented with entirely new designs and methods of construction in his quest to craft footwear that would provide workers with the perfect combination of durability and comfort.
Due in large part to the war and the financial restrictions it imposed upon the population, Cortelgomma grew slowly. After the war was over and people began to enjoy higher disposable incomes, there was no stopping the brand's growth and its reputation for superb quality began to spread. By the early 1980s, Cortelgomma had become Italy's leading manufacturer of safety shoes and boots.
In the early years, COFRA was a small company, but it quickly grew in popularity thanks to the high quality of its products; by the 1980s, COFRA was the leading manufacturer of safety footwear in Italy. In 1983, Cortelgomma rebranded itself as COFRA and began to expand its presence into the global arena. Throughout the 1990s, COFRA continued a program of opening new manufacturing facilities, distribution centres and sales offices, with its exceptional range of products soon becoming available in more than 50 different countries.
The COFRA of today is so different from the original Cortelgomma as to be unrecognisable. Now boasting over 800 employees in locations all over the world, COFRA produces a staggering three million pairs of safety boots and shoes every year, supplying them to a wide and diverse array of workers in more than 80 different countries through official suppliers like us here at Tiger Safety.
We invite you to browse our website to discover the full collection of safety trainers, boots and shoes from COFRA. Prices start from just £34.99 and delivery to any UK postcode is absolutely free of charge with compliments of Tiger Safety.