Alessandro Rosano

Alessandro Rosano is the founder of HeyDude, a line of comfort shoes.

He and his business partner and U.S. distributor, Daniele Guidi, sold the business to Crocs for $2.5 billion in 2022.

Before starting HeyDude, Rosano had launched a number of businesses, including a wooden watch brand called WeWood and a line of wooden clogs with springs in their heels that sold under the name Baldo.

He grew up in Pistoia, Italy, a medieval city not far from Florence, and moved to Hong Kong to run his businesses.

With comfort shoes having a moment, HeyDude sales soared from $20 million in 2018 to $581 million in 2021, when Crocs agreed to buy the brand. Revenue for the latest 12 months is now over $1 billion.