© Cesare Colosio.

Leading Italian circular knitting machine manufacturer Cesare Colosio has come out of lockdown and gone straight into top gear with another brand-new knit innovation.

After developing knitting data for a range of protective facemasks for its customers, who came to the aid of pandemic hit communities, the Brescia based company has now developed an innovative seamlessly knitted, one-piece baseball style cap on its S1M intarsia machine, which was developed to produce 3D shoe uppers for some of the world’s leading sneaker brands.

© Cesare Colosio.

“It's made on the S1M machine, the same machine we use to make shoe uppers,” explains Fabiana Colosio, Vice President and Commercial Director of the company. “And I have to say it's a magic machine. In fact, we can produce the hat in one shot in just 10 minutes, without any material waste. But we can only do this of course, because it's 4 feeds true intarsia circular knitting machine,” Fabiana comments.

“The seamlessly knitted caps fit all head sizes – one size fits all. No reinforcement is required for the peak – only melt yarn is required to give it the right shape,” Fabiana adds.

No cutting or sewing is required after the cap is knitted, as it leaves the machine in one piece. The cap also has special shaping to ensure good fitting around the ears.

Cesare Colosio has always been known for its expertise in knitting true Argyle intarsia since it was founded in 1958. In fact, the company says it is the ‘one-and-only expert’ when it comes to the legendary Argyle intarsia patterns. In 2015, after 60 years of experience on intarsia knitting, the company developed the first circular intarsia machine ever patented for the production of knitted, seamless shoe uppers. “All the biggest brands and footwear manufacturers in the world agreed that they were witnessing something revolutionary,” Colosio commented at the time.

Colosio unveiled three ground-breaking innovations at ITMA in Barcelona last year - the very latest knitted shoes available on the market made with its intarsia technology, its latest mesh pattern patent and the brand new S1M intarsia machine for producing shoe uppers.

The S1M’s forerunner, the S1+ was widely acclaimed by many of the most important international brands and with more than 600 machines installed since 2016, has brought more and more knitted shoes on the store shelves and online every year, from the Chinese brand Anta to Decathlon, including Nike’s Mercurial GS360 football boot, which was produced using the S1+ machine and was first released in November 2018 as a limited edition model.

© Cesare Colosio.

“We are of course extremely satisfied for what we have done so far in terms of innovation,” adds Gianfranco Colosio, CEO of the family-run company. “But we do not consider these achievements as a finish line, as we continue to invest in Research & Development activities which cover not only the machine itself, but also the final product.”

According to Colosio, the S1+ machine is in fact not only ‘100% sustainable’, allowing the elimination of waste of material throughout the whole manufacturing process, but it is also extremely versatile. The machine produces uppers for multiple applications, from technical and sports footwear to casual and fashion shoes. Additionally, with an average production capacity per machine of 4 pairs of uppers per hour, manufacturers can minimize industrial costs and times.

Returning to caps and hats, Fabian Colosio concludes: “This is a new article developed on our actual machine, but besides this we are almost ready with a new machine that we will launch at the first exhibition available after the COVID-19 will be gone.”

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To learn more about Colosio, please visit www.colosio.it.