For Mario Moretti Polegato, chairman and founder of GEOX S.P.A., the heat of the Nevadan desert proved to be the ideal innovation climate. In 1989, during a business trip to Reno to promote his family's wine business at a trade fair, he decided to take a walk. Bothered by his overheated feet, he used a hunting knife for puncturing several holes in the soles of his sneakers to let air through. He had just discovered a simple and effective way to let excess heat out of his shoes.
Back in Italy, Mr. Polegato, who holds degrees in Wine Technology and Law, started researching his flash of intuition in the workshop of a small footwear company owned by the family. After extensive experimenting and research on footwear construction, he discovered how to apply a membrane that is both waterproof and breathable at the same time: it has millions of small "canals", or micro pores, smaller than drops of water, so that water cannot get through, but vapor can. Fitted between his shoe's punctured soles and his foot, the membrane stopped water from entering his shoes through the holes in the soles, but allowed the vapor from perspiration to evaporate