About Us
Finding Inspiration in Every Shoes
Iron Fox was born in Italy in 1984, from a passion for precision and a deep respect for the craft of shoemaking. Four decades later, we still build every machine the same way — with our hands, our heads, and a lot of heart.
Our Story
Iron Fox was founded in 1984 by Enzo Paolucci, a man who knew the footwear industry from the inside out. He started out selling chemical products — adhesives, solvents, and sole primers like halogenating agents for rubber and polyurethane soles which is still today our core business under the brand of IROCOL Adhesives, the materials that defined shoe manufacturing during Italy's and Europe great shoes industrial era. That deep knowledge of chemistry sparked an idea: why not build a machine to do it better? He assembled his first prototype in a garage — an automatic spray machine for rubber sole halogenation. That machine, now known today as the A250 MPF, was the beginning of everything.
From that first invention, one idea led to another. Iron Fox began designing machines that simply didn't exist yet — solutions built around the real needs of production lines seeking higher productivity and better quality. Because our roots are in adhesive chemistry, every machine we make revolves around the bond between sole and upper: sole presses, of which we are global leaders; rapid drying systems for both water-based and solvent-based adhesives; sole preparation machines including roughing units and UV curing systems; refrigerated stabilisers; and more. Forty years on, the garage is long gone — but the same curiosity that built that first machine still drives everything we do.