May 4, 2018: Luxury brand Gucci has unveiled Gucci ArtLab, the company’s futuristic centre of industrial craftsmanship and experimentation laboratory for leather goods and shoes products.
Located near the headquarters of the company in Casellina, and active since the beginning of the year, spanning an area of over 37,000 square metres, with over 800 employees, Gucci ArtLab helps give life to the creative aesthetic of Creative Director Alessandro Michele by developing the sought-after Gucci products of the future, and thus help sustain the exceptional business momentum of the brand.
In order to meet demand for Gucci’s items, which has nearly doubled in the last three years, significant investment has been committed to the supply chain, with a focus on preserving manufacturing know-how and innovation, vertical integration and lead time reduction.
Within Gucci ArtLab, teams are working on full in-house prototyping and sampling activity for leather goods and shoes and R&D for new materials, metal hardware and packaging. The facility houses a test lab (climate chamber and physical and chemical tests), accessories lab, internal last and hill department, a bamboo room for leather goods area and a pre-industrialization area.
As announced in 2017, Gucci confirms it will complete the hiring of 900 people for production roles within the shoes and leather goods area by the end of 2018. Today the company makes a large part (over 50%) of its leather goods and shoes at its own production facilities in Italy.
