Spoor’s traceability capability helps a responsibly made German luxury brand forge ever-closer links with the land. 

A personal recommendation made by the “awe-inspiring” owner of her chosen tannery, located in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, led German-born fashion designer Tina Lutz Morris straight to Spoor, a Danish supplier of animal-to-finished-product traceable leathers, that was established in September 2020. “I love her so much”, Ms Lutz Morris says of the trusted tanner, whose name she prefers not to reveal, but for whom she is full of praise and does identify as having been a key player in the development of compostable leather for London-based accessories label Anya Hindmarch’s recent Return to Nature collection. (The rawhides were, incidentally, sourced and semi-processed by Spoor’s owner Scan-Hide.)

After learning what Spoor’s laser-enabled, processing-proof traceability technology could do for her made-in-Germany luxury leathergoods line, Ms Lutz Morris was moved to take “another step up” in the realm of responsible production. It was not long before reassessing her leather supply became a “no-brainer”, the designer explains. Since conversations between the two began last March, Lutz Morris, whose showroom is based in Berlin, has placed each subsequent raw material order with Spoor*. The brand officially initiated the process to transition 100% of its hides to those purchased exclusively from the latter in September, which its founder-designer estimates should take about a year to accomplish in full.

The first fruits to result from their collaboration debuted towards the end of 2022, taking the form of three classic Lutz Morris handbag styles in pebbled calfskin: the Blaine pouch, the Parker book bag and its horizontal counterpart, the Parker Horizon, which comes with either a long or short strap. In typical fashion, all have been assembled by hand by local artisans in North Rhine-Westphalia, and are being sold in a caramel-toned hue called Saddle.

Mutual respect

The word “spoor”, of Germanic origin, can mean the imprint left behind by a wild animal, such as its tracks or scent, as it moves through the world. Fittingly, each piece from Spoor comes from Scan-Hide, founded in 1991, Denmark’s last-remaining tannery, and bears a laser-printed mark of its own. All of its semi-finished leather meets Leather Working Group (LWG) gold standard and is Oeko-Tex-certified. All hides are uniquely numbered to correspond with the same, officially registered, identification digits as those borne by the individual cow or calf’s ear tag and stored on the tannery’s database. This chain of data maintains the connection between an animal, its life story and its hide on leaving the abattoir, helping fashion and lifestyle brands tie their material purchasing decisions to real, documented evidence pertaining to core sustainability metrics such as animal welfare and climate impact. Scan-Hide exclusively sources from Danish, Swedish, German, Finnish and Dutch suppliers and sells its wet blue and wet white directly to finishing tanneries.

A new term, coined by a student intern and shared with World Leather by Spoor’s business development director, Birgitte Holgaard Langer, captures what sets Spoor apart most concisely: “digitainable integrity”. Many organisations, she says, now know that they must be able to back up claims and storytelling with data, to prove that “what they say is also what they do, and what they do is also what they say”. Traceability facilitates transparency, she adds, which can help brands avoid accusations of greenwashing. Last year’s announcement that companies operating in the European Union will be required to begin compiling annual sustainability reports which give a detailed view both of their social and environmental footprints by 2024, at the latest, has not had a major impact on business at Spoor just yet, according to Ms Holgaard Langer, but the team has definitely observed an increased interest in its technology. “Our focus is and will continue to be on what traceability enables and why data is so essential for our industry,” she underlines.

Ms Lutz Morris, meanwhile, considers it a personal duty to run her brand as responsibly as possible, from the promises she herself makes through to the company’s management of resources, whether that may be opting to purchase more artisanal components from local, family-run workshops or minimising head office waste. The designer has thus far absorbed the extra expense of buying fully traceable leather herself, she tells us, and would simply feel uncomfortable doing things any other way. She laments the current levels of greenwashing in the fashion industry at large and emphasises how her own team is “constantly trying to improve every single step”. Vouching for this, Ms Holgaard Langer praises her customer’s strong vision, commitment to finding better ways of working and, of course, for being “extremely picky” with her materials. Prior to meeting in person at Lineapelle, along with representatives from the finishing tannery, the partners had enjoyed “some really good conversations” online, which fostered a sense of trust and sped up the co-creation process considerably, the director elaborates.

Conscious pursuit

Especially in keeping with Lutz Morris’ closely connected supply ecosystem, which does not extend beyond Europe, Ms Holgaard Langer estimates that around half of Scan-Hide’s leathers hail from German farms. Also helpful, particularly in view of present macroeconomic challenges, is the fact that the finishing tannery is certified gold by the LWG, has its own water purification system, and had installed a solar power plant on site pre-covid. “It is incredible what [the owner] is doing there,” the designer reaffirms. She ascribes her preference for leather to its quality and durability, but does not rule out integrating other petroleum-free materials further down the line, but only if the material can tick the necessary boxes. She is already consulting with two US-based firms about this. Plastic-based “vegan” substitutes have long been ruled out, though.

Precision, it would seem, is key. Ms Holgaard Langer shares a similar eye for detail in her appreciation for definitions and points to the challenges Spoor initially faced from industry stakeholders who already thought their leather “traceable” by virtue of knowing the finishing tannery or the name of the abattoir which initially supplied the hides. “We are part of a big ecosystem,” she stresses, “we can’t close our eyes and just say we are a by-product.”  

* Herning’s HEART contemporary art museum will host Spoor’s first-ever event, Spoor Xperience, in celebration of Scandinavian furniture design and its roots in the area’s biodiversity on February 8.


Photo: Designed by Tina Lutz Morris, the collection's Blaine bag features a custom-made frame and hardware made in Italian and German workshops well-known to the brand, in line with its commitment to sourcing locally. CREDIT: Lutz Morris

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