Tod's

Tod’s S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion company specializing in footwear, leather goods, and accessories. Originating as a family shoemaking business founded in the late 1920s, it was expanded into industrial production in the 1970s by Diego Della Valle and grew internationally from the 1980s. The company also developed the Fay and Hogan brands under what became Tod’s Group, and was publicly listed on the Borsa Italiana in 2000 until its privatization in 2024.

Tod’s has been repeatedly involved in controversies concerning governance, intellectual property, and public–private boundaries. The group’s acquisition of French luxury shoemaker Roger Vivier in the 1990s drew sustained criticism from investors and media over alleged self-dealing by the controlling Della Valle family, culminating in a disputed valuation and subsequent whitewash procedure. In 2011, Tod’s faced public backlash and regulatory intervention after attempting to secure exclusive commercial rights to the image of the Colosseum in exchange for funding its restoration. The company has also been the subject of recurring imitation and trademark disputes, including long-standing accusations that its flagship Gommino shoe copied the earlier The Original Car Shoe design, litigation over a “double-T” logo, and renewed international criticism over alleged copying and cultural appropriation in the mid-2020s.

In the 2020s, governance concerns resurfaced during failed and renewed privatization attempts, with activist investors challenging the fairness of valuation methodologies used by the board. In 2024, Tod’s was taken private following a transaction involving the Della Valle family and L Catterton (backed by LVMH), ending its stock-market listing. In 2025, Italian prosecutors announced an investigation into Tod’s and several executives over alleged labour abuses and misleading “Made in Italy” claims linked to third-party suppliers, and sought a temporary ban on the company’s advertising.