It looks like leather.
It outlasts leather.
It's Thunit.
Davos has been producing rubber sheets in northern Italy since 1955. Their registered flagship — Thunit® — is the world benchmark for leather-alternative sole material: flexible, abrasion-resistant, waterproof, with 800+ finishes and made from recycled production waste. The real Thunit is only from Davos.
Vero Thunit.Only from Davos. Cavaso del Tomba · Italy
Founded · 70 years in rubber
Finishes · growing every season
TUV certified · SATRA member
A rubber sheet —
the way describing
a Ferrari as
a car.
Davos developed Thunit as a response to a specific problem: natural leather soles look beautiful, feel premium — but they are not waterproof, they scuff and abrade quickly, and they are expensive. The shoe industry needed a material that delivered the leather look and the leather hand, but with better functional performance.
Thunit is the answer they built. Flexible like leather. Workable like leather — it can be skived, stitched, stamped and finished in the same way. Abrasion resistance and water resistance that natural leather cannot match. And 800+ surface finishes, from classic leather grain to shiny, matt, hot-stamped and more, with new finishes released every season following market trends.
The range is built on three articles: Mirage, the standard sheet that covers most sole work, and Tranit and Luxorit for particular requirements — specified by name when you order.
THUNIT is a Davos registered trademark. The "Vero Thunit" — the real Thunit — is only manufactured by Davos. It is imitated but not replicated.
Effetto moda —
the fashion effect.
Each season Davos issues finish boards built around a single sole shape, so you can read the whole tonal range at once. Laser Aurora and Laser Luxor are two of them: nudes, sands, tans, greys, oxblood and black, in matt, waxed and nubuck hands — with laser-etched grip patterns and gold-foil DAVOS branding applied during finishing.
Mirage
The standard article. Specify this unless the shoe asks for something else.
Tranit
For particular requirements — brief us on the construction and we'll advise.
Luxorit
The special-requirement article, for the top of the range.
Where Thunit goes
Four product worlds take the bulk of the range.
Dress & formalThe core application
Men's Oxford and Derby shoes, women's heeled shoes, court shoes. The leather-look finish, with better durability across thousands of steps.
Casual & walkingThe growing category
Loafers, slip-ons, everyday leather shoes. The durability advantage of Thunit over leather is most visible in everyday-wear footwear that takes weather and pavement.
Women's fashionWhere 800 finishes earn their keep
Seasonal colours, hot-stamped patterns and special effects that align Thunit with each season's palette and tonal direction.
Leather goodsBeyond footwear
Wallets, card holders, bag bases — anywhere a leather-look, water-resistant surface is needed without the cost or moisture issues of natural leather.
Microlite. Evergum.
Everlight.
Davos's expanded rubber sheet range has taken a serious share of the market on four properties: lightness, softness, abrasion resistance and thermoformability. It absorbs shock from the ground, so it walks comfortably; and it works like any other sheet on the shop floor — skive it, excavate it, bond it, with no reported problems in the glue process.
Microlite
The light expanded sheet — insoles, wedges, midsoles and platforms.
Evergum
Soft expanded rubber, thermoformable, for cushioned sole units.
Everlight
The lightest of the three — the weight argument for dress and casual.
Gripp bands.
Fiesta soles.
The sneaker became the best-selling shoe in the world, and Davos built for it. Two articles cover two different uses. Gripp is the technical one — a high-quality band made to measure to complete the sole, combined with a performing tread in V1, Spinapesce or Tristar. Alongside it sits the Fiesta sole, moulded in Davos's best rubber compound for performance on the finished shoe.
Gripp
Made-to-measure bands — five surfaces, from Lucido Nero to Lucido Neve.
V1 Spinapesce
Herringbone tread, in gum, white and black.
V1 Tristar
Triangular-lattice tread — grip with a graphic read.
Fiesta
A complete moulded sole in the best compound — cream or black.
The STICK line.
Four compounds.
Davos holds the leadership position in climbing rubber sheets. The STICK line came out of its R&D working with the most famous climbers in the world, and runs to four standard articles — chosen by wall, not by taste. Beyond sheet stock, Davos increasingly supplies moulded rubber inserts for the same shoes: toe caps and heels.
Stick Plus
The hardest compound in the range — durability plus adherence, for indoors.
Technostick
Soft, smears well, leaves no marks on walls or holds. Indoor and outdoor · yellow and orange.
Stick Zero
The intermediate compromise — good friction for slabs and vertical walls where precision counts.
Stick Evolution
Soft, for double-texture holds, bouldering and overhangs — strong on smears and worn supports.
Gripp bands —
for the whole boot.
Gripp is a technically excellent rubber compound, and its quality is why it goes beyond sneakers: applied as bands on outdoor and trekking shoes it takes the abuse at the most exposed line on the shoe. It is versatile — many colours, many designs, and thicknesses down to below 2 mm. Well-known brands have chosen Davos to produce their personalised Gripp bands.
Colour & design
Produced in many colours and surface designs — matched to the upper, not approximated.
Under 2 mm
Different thicknesses on request, including below 2 mm where the last demands it.
Personalised
Branded, tooled bands developed for the customer — the route famous names have taken.
Five lines.
One compound house.
Davos extends its rubber soles across categories — outdoor and trekking, safety, motorcycling, soccer, city and more. The Contact Sole is one of the newest articles, and the most interesting technically: CDS inserts give it high grip on iced surfaces.
Trekking & Outdoor
Multi-density lugged units for hiking and approach boots.
City Line
Quiet, low-profile treads for urban and casual footwear.
Moto & Motocross
Shift-pad zones and heat-tolerant compounds for riding boots.
Soccer & Calcetto
Stud and dimple plates for grass and synthetic turf.
Contact Sole · CDS inserts
The newest article in the range. CDS inserts set into the tread guarantee high grip on iced surfaces — for safety, work and winter outdoor footwear. Ask us for the technical sheet.
Founded 1955 —
by a shoemaker who
wanted his own soles.
Davos Rubber Industry was founded in 1955, when the owner of a well-known shoe factory in the north of Italy realised it was important to self-produce the rubber soles needed for mountain shoes instead of depending on external suppliers. Lino Piccolo was a collaborator at the time; in the 1960s he took over the management of the company as Director and Owner.
Within a few years the activity had extended the production and sale of rubber soles across the entire Italian peninsula — successfully enough that Davos gave up producing shoes altogether to focus on rubber soles, and subsequently rubber sheets for footwear. In 1970 it moved to new plants at Crocetta del Montello and Cornuda, increasing capacity and diversifying into rubber flooring and technical rubber articles for the household appliance and automotive sectors.
The plant at Cavaso del Tomba, inaugurated in 2007, added 20,000 m² to the existing production of the Cornuda plant and the factory in Sri Lanka. Now home to the directional offices, Cavaso carries out the pressing, grinding and painting of the semi-finished sheets manufactured at Cornuda. The distribution network covers the whole of Italy and foreign countries — and Davos stands out on the global market for transparency in customer relations: total cooperation, continuous commitment to meet all needs, maximum commercial respect.
Cavaso del Tomba · in harmony with its natural and environmental context.
Davos is GREEN.
Quality is the principle.
Quality is the guiding principle in the production process — an essential asset that has turned the company into a world leader in the rubber sheets market, and made it a point of reference for shoe factories, sole manufacturers and stylists.
A promise. A responsibility. A mission, in favour of the planet. Protagonists of a regeneration that has the environment at heart, that never wastes… that respects.
Product quality is guaranteed by continuous research and improvement of the industrial manufacturing process, with the full engagement of the management team in innovative and sustainable methods — with safety and environmental respect. All products are adapted to international legislation and to existing parameters on the use of harmful substances, which grow more restrictive day by day.
Attention to the environment and to modern production systems was a fundamental principle in the construction of the new plant. The Thunit sheet production process is the example: minimal environmental impact, with a new water-based painting system, a computerised weighing system and cooling-water recirculation.
ISO 9001:2015 · the management system behind every sheet and sole.
Specify the compound at the source.
Tell us the construction and the finish — we’ll send a sample sheet and the Thunit® finish card.