The next stop of our European tour – Paris, where we visited the design studio of SATISFY – one of the hottest running brands in the world. All their items look undeniably unique, beautiful, and with stunning attention to detail. However, looks alone don't cut it in the running world. Not everyone knows that the brand is also incredibly unique and functional in their fabrics, which they develop by themselves.

We talked with the brand's founder Brice Partouche about the diversity and technology behind their fabrics, the French silk industry, the running community in France and beyond, the "high" and "possession" of running, and, of course, music. Brice showed us the backstage of the studio and some of the gear samples, sharing insights and details about them.

Immediately after Paris, we went to Milan – a "fashion capital" and the most concentrated stop of our exploration. Here we will tell you about the legendary NT Majocchi. Located near Lake Como, Majocchi has been operating since 1941, providing technically advanced and aesthetically attractive fabrics and materials for many brands and designers, including Griffin, Alyx, Thrudark, Visvim, Yezzy, Ralph Lauren, The North Face, Tommy Hilfiger, Prada, Timberland, Napapijri, Vollebak, Palace, Supreme, Woolrich, Stone Island, Maharishi, Pirelli, and others. They also produce equipment for the military, medical services, firefighters, workers, police and other civil structures.

In addition to a truly warm welcome and a tour of closed production, we talked with the creative team and core members of the company, including founder and CEO Andrea Terracini and art director Federico Romeo about the market of technical fabrics today, the production of high-performance materials at the junction of form and function, as well as the digitalization of the industry, metaverse and where it all leads us.

In Milan, we met with Alberto Deon, creative director of DEMON. The history of Deon's family shoe production begins back in 1963 in Montebelluna, Italy, at the foot of the Dolomites. In 2004, the brand temporarily suspended its activities until 2018, when Alberto decided to exhume the company and give it a new vision. Today, DEMON combines the highly specialized traditional knowledge of Italian artisans in shoe making with a modern approach to their production, materials, design, and research.

We talked with Alberto about the current positioning of the brand, how to keep a balance between the technical and visual components of the product, TikTok and architecture, modern fashion, and industry problems, illustrating it with our signature macroshots of shoes and some 3D modeling experiments.

We took a closer look at samples of the apparel and footwear collections by ROA Hiking.

Formed in 2015 in collaboration with the creative team of Slam Jam and technical shoe designer Maurizio Quaglia, the brand has established itself as a manufacturer of hiking shoes with experimental materials, Italian quality, and modern design. This year they announced the release of the first full-fledged clothing line, and it seems that we have a new trendsetter in the world of "technical fashion".

In the creative space called Spazio Maiocchi, where the Slam Jam creative studio and Kaleidoscope Magazine are based, we had the opportunity to explore the collection and are now happy to share our take on it with you via a review, adding to it comments from ROA's creative director - Patrick Stangbye.

Our final material from Milan is a tour and an interview from VIBRAM CONNECTION LAB. In addition to innovative technologies in the production of shoe soles and other materials related to shoe design, VIBRAM is quite actively involved on the creative front, working with designers, DIY-ers and communities around the globe.

One of the hubs for such activities is this project - VIBRAM CONNECTION LAB, based in Milan. A small facility and innovation department, a space for workshops on shoe repair and design, an archive and a place for intersection for the communities – all this and much more is Connection Lab. We had an opportunity to talk with Vibram's team about the space, the industry and the company's place in it, as well as studied the archive and their recent developments. Now we are happy to share it with you.

We are moving on to the final city – Berlin. In this material we will tell the story of côte&ciel, a brand that has significantly advanced the art of making backpacks, bags and accessories to a whole another level over the past decade, constantly experimenting with new and innovative materials and designs.

With the current design studio, a newly opened showroom in Paris and the main office in Berlin, the company started out with production of accessories for Apple products. Today it is a trendsetter in a "carry-design" with a large number of dedicated followers around the world. We visited their HQ in Berlin and talked with Jacqueline Helen Schmid [Head of Marketing] about the origin of the brand, the legends around it, the new collection and materials, the philosophy and positioning of the company, creative community and much more.

Rounding off our series of long-read articles from the 2022 European Tour, in Berlin we visited the office of the legendary Beinghunted. studio. Founded in 2001 as an online blog, and working its way through the retail project [now it's FIRMAMENT] to a consulting and creative agency, collaborating with the largest brands in the industry, Beinghunted. today, led by founder Jörg Haas, continues its work as one of the industry's most influential projects.

Moreover, after over 2 decades of work, the studio has collected an impressive arsenal of rare and marvelous pieces of apparel. Among the cult items, we found rare jackets from VISVIM, ACRONYM, WTAPS, NEIGHBORHOOD, PALACE Skateboards made in collaboration with GORE-TEX, and with direct participation of the studio. We asked Jörg to show us his favorite pieces and tell us some interesting stories or facts about them that many might not know. Full of collector's enthusiasm, Jörg took us behind the scenes of the studio and showed us more than we could have imagined.

"Handmade in Berlin" – for all fans of functional clothing, this phrase refers to one brand – BAGJACK The company, founded in 1993 by Peter Brunsberg, began with the production of messenger bags for local couriers and cycle enthusiasts. Now BAGJACK is known for their unsurpassed assembly quality of bags, pouches, backpacks, and accessories; for the introduction of X-Pac material and Cobra buckles from AustriAlpin into the everyday; for the modularity, adaptability, and variability of its products, which appeared among the first on the urban market, and many more achievements and firsts.

After our first virtual acquaintance back in 2016 for an interview in our 3rd print issue, we were glad to see Peter, walk around the factory and get probably the biggest interview from this trip, where we learned about his archival samples and unreleased products, production for ACRONYM and SPYDER, the factory structure and the technologies used, the sub-brand bagjack-GOLF, new forms for experimentation and innovation, and not only.