Some brands begin with a business plan. Ours began with family.
Behind A.S.98 Canada are not investors, a boardroom, or a faceless company. Behind it are two siblings, Liana and Luca, carrying forward the work of their father, Romano Colagiacomo, and the strength of their mother, who held the family together through the hardest chapters of their lives—before Romano passed, and after.
This is the part of the business people do not always see. They see the boots, the leather, the product pages, the shipments, and the customer emails. But underneath all of that is a family history, a promise, and a name we are still working every day to honour.
Where Our Story Begins
Our family’s footwear story began with FerraGiacomo, founded by Romano Colagiacomo in 1985. It was built on Italian footwear, relationships, craftsmanship, and trust. Romano believed that shoes were never just products. They were a reflection of quality, taste, and care.
The name FerraGiacomo carries our Italian roots. Romano’s own name means “from Rome,” a quiet reminder of the culture that shaped the business: pride in craft, respect for materials, and a belief that details matter even when most people do not notice them at first.
To Romano, a pair of Italian leather boots could speak before anyone tried them on. The leather, the weight, the stitching, the finish, the shape, and the construction all told a story. He built his business around that standard, and that standard became part of how we grew up.
Growing Up Inside the Business
For us, footwear was not something we discovered later. It was always around us. Boxes arriving. Samples being reviewed. Conversations about leather, fit, colour, seasons, retailers, and customers. We watched our father make decisions with instinct, experience, and care.
Inside a family business, you learn before you realise you are learning. You learn that a beautiful shoe still has to be wearable. You learn that comfort cannot be faked. You learn that cheap construction eventually reveals itself. You learn that customers remember how a shoe made them feel.
Those lessons stayed with us because they were never just lessons about shoes. They were lessons about responsibility.
Our Mother, Our Rock
No story about our family is complete without our mother.
She was our rock during the toughest moments, long before we fully understood what those moments would cost. She carried more than most people ever saw. She protected the family, supported the business, and gave us strength when life became uncertain.
Before Romano passed, she stood beside him and beside us. After Romano passed, she kept standing. In grief, in pressure, in fear, and in all the quiet moments no customer or supplier could ever see, she was there.
A family business is never carried by one person alone. Romano built something meaningful, but our mother helped give us the strength to keep going when continuing felt impossible.
After Romano
When Romano passed away, the business became more than a company. It became a responsibility.
There is no clean way to inherit that kind of weight. Grief does not wait politely while orders are fulfilled, collections are selected, customers are answered, and decisions are made. The work continues, even when the people behind it are still learning how to continue themselves.
Liana and Luca stepped into that reality young. Maybe too young to understand everything it would demand. But family businesses do not always wait until you feel ready. They ask something else: are you willing to show up, learn quickly, protect what came before you, and build what comes next?
That has been our answer every day since.
Two Siblings, One Legacy
Today, A.S.98 Canada is shaped by both of us.
Liana brings the eye for product, customers, collections, and the instinct that comes from years spent around Italian footwear. She understands which styles have life in them, which leathers feel right, and which silhouettes can move from a sample to a real woman’s wardrobe.
Luca works on the digital, operational, and customer-facing side of the business: the website, product pages, advertising, logistics, search visibility, and the details that help bring a traditional footwear company into a modern online world.
Neither side works alone. A beautiful collection means little if customers never find it. A polished website means little if the product behind it has no soul. A.S.98 Canada lives in the balance between the two.
Why A.S.98 Means Something to Us
A.S.98 is not an ordinary footwear brand. It has character. The leather has depth. The hardware has intention. The silhouettes are bold, confident, and unmistakably Italian.
That is why the brand belongs in our story.
A.S.98 still feels touched by people. You can see it in the hand-finished details, the texture of the leather, and the small variations that make each pair feel alive. It feels made, not merely produced.
That matters to us because FerraGiacomo was built on the same belief: that footwear should have substance, craftsmanship, and a reason to exist beyond one season.
Italy, Canada, and the Edit Between Them
Running A.S.98 Canada means living between two places. Italy is where the product begins: the leather, the factories, the craftsmanship, and the instinct that shoes are part of a larger way of dressing. Canada is where those shoes have to become real.
That means Montreal sidewalks, Toronto commutes, Vancouver rain, Calgary cold, and the short summers we wait for all year. It means choosing styles that are beautiful, but also wearable. Boots that can handle real life. Sandals that can carry a full day. Leather that will age instead of collapse.
Not every beautiful shoe earns a place here. The selection has to make sense for Canadian women, Canadian seasons, and the way people actually live.
The Work No One Sees
Most customers see the final version: the product image, the size selector, the description, and the box arriving at the door. They do not see the months of work before that moment.
They do not see the collection reviews, the fit discussions, the leather decisions, the inventory planning, the photography, the shipping issues, the returns, the product feeds, the ads, or the late nights spent trying to make every part of the experience better.
That invisible work is the business.
It is not always glamorous. It is detailed, repetitive, and often stressful. But it is also where trust is built. Every product page, every customer reply, every order shipped, and every problem solved is a small way of proving that the name behind the business still means something.
A Family Business in a Digital World
FerraGiacomo was built through relationships: showrooms, retailers, samples, conversations, and trust earned over time. A.S.98 Canada now also exists through search engines, online campaigns, product pages, photography, and customers who may never meet us in person.
The tools have changed. The responsibility has not.
We still believe in choosing carefully, knowing the product, respecting the customer, and offering footwear that deserves a place in someone’s wardrobe. That is why every season is edited carefully, from new arrivals to the styles customers come back to again and again in our best sellers.
What We Hope You Feel
We want A.S.98 Canada to feel personal without feeling small. Premium without feeling cold. Italian without feeling distant. Canadian without losing the romance of where the shoes come from.
We are not trying to be the biggest footwear store. We are trying to build the kind of business people trust: customers, partners, retailers, stylists, editors, and anyone who believes that real brands still have real people behind them.
If someone important reads this—someone who can open a door, create an opportunity, collaborate with us, or simply understand what we are trying to build—we hope they see the heart behind the work. We hope they see a family that has been through loss, kept going, and still believes deeply in product, service, and legacy.
To Our Customers
If you have ordered from A.S.98 Canada, visited us, emailed us, followed the brand, reviewed a pair, or told someone about shoes you loved, you are part of why this business continues.
That is not a marketing line. It is the truth of a family company.
Every order matters more when there are real people behind it. Every message is read. Every customer is remembered. Every season is another chance to honour where we came from while building something stronger for the future.
A.S.98 Canada is a footwear brand, yes. But behind it is FerraGiacomo, Romano Colagiacomo’s legacy, our mother’s strength, and two siblings continuing the work in their own way.
That is the story behind the brand.
A Short Note to Romano
Dad, we hope we are making you proud. Everything we are building still carries you in it—the lessons, the standards, the love for Italian footwear, and the name you left us to protect. We miss you, we love you, and we are still here, trying every day.
With love,
Liana and Luca
