The Museum of the Ski Boot and Sports Shoe and its Cultural Legacy in the Industrial Cluster of Montebelluna (Treviso)

Inaugurated in 1984 through the efforts of a local historian with the support of manufacturers who donated pieces important to a reconstruction of the history of this area of design, the Museum of the Ski Boot and Sports Shoe in Montebelluna became a depository of materials and observatory of the local situation. Changes in the global context, the delocalization of production, company re-organizations, led to a gradual marginalization of the Museum and its identity-building value for the cluster. The first part of the paper reviews the history of the Montebelluna industrial cluster and the cluster museums within the Italian design system, highlighting the specificity of a region dedicated since the early nineteenth century to the design, production and marketing of technical equipment for sports and the mountains. The second part proposes a new role for the Museum, based on a joint academic study conducted in 2016 by Università Iuav di Venezia and Università Ca’ Foscari. Two propositions are developed: a methodology for a more focused enhancement of the existing legacy; and the development of a regional network that would expand the concept of museum to embrace the diffuse historical legacies of the cluster, manufacturing companies, outstanding landscapes and achievements in sports.