Browse Features 2022 January - leatherbiz: Leading news site for

22 November 2022

Turning waste into raw material, the LIFE byProtVal project

The Spanish footwear industry research centre INESCOP, under the framework of the LIFE ByProtVal project, has been working on the recovery of different protein-derived products from rendering residues...

19 October 2022

Fashion shows go big on upcycled leather

At the start of the summer, a leading topic of conversation among fashion-watchers across Europe, following Fashion Week shows in Milan and Paris, was the creative use of leather in spring-summer 2023...

11 October 2022

Hit for six

There are millions of people around the world who appreciate the perfection in a cricket ball.

07 October 2022

World Leather at 35

As the magazine celebrates its thirty-fifth birthday, we look back at its long list of achievements and pay tribute to the people involved.

04 October 2022

Loewe and the basket-cases

Leathergoods brand Loewe used the 2022 Salone del Mobile in Milan as a platform for ‘Weave, Restore, Renew’, a project that breathes new life into old objects and materials.

27 September 2022

Circularity is in leather’s DNA

The representative body of the leather industry in the European Union, COTANCE, says the ‘green transition’ the European Commission has called on the wider fashion industry to carry out is in the leather...

20 September 2022

Numbers game

Former lawyer Juliette Angeletti has found designing handbags to be the perfect way of combining her fascination with the Golden Ratio, her love of traditional French craft skills, and her commitment to...

13 September 2022

The Higg takes a hit

The leather industry has been waiting in hope for almost two years for the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to suspend the score it has devised for leather in its Higg Materials Sustainability Index. There was...

23 August 2022

Where usefulness and beauty embrace

The artisans of the future have a glass ceiling that they must remove if they are to receive the support, training and qualifications their talents deserve. Spain’s Círculo Fortuny has launched a new project...

16 August 2022

Italy: committed to circularity

Italy’s national tanning industry association, UNIC, recently published its sustainability report for 2021. As it did in 2020, UNIC devotes an entire section of the new report to the commitment of Italian...

10 August 2022

Turning a dream into reality

A seven-year-old leathergoods manufacturer, based on the Rustenberg Estate in South Africa, has already made positive changes to the lives of its workers, and already has customers willing to wait months to...

02 August 2022

Leather’s ties to the UN continue

Building on the leather industry’s efforts to raise its voice at the COP26 Climate Change Conference last year, it is now playing an active part in another United Nations initiative, the world’s largest...

26 July 2022

Shaving foam, but not as you know it

Founded in 2020 in G?rlitz in eastern Germany, eco-softfibre produces biodegradable flexible “foams”, upcycled from wet white leather shavings. Their work shows that the leather industry offers a route away...

19 July 2022

Cooling role for cattle farms

An aggressive reduction in methane emissions from beef and dairy herds is achievable, Professor Mitloehner argues, taking cattle farming beyond climate neutrality and setting it up to help offset emissions...

28 June 2022

Fertiliser matters

One consequence of the war in Ukraine is a shortage, and huge hike in the cost, of materials for making fertilisers. This is sparking fears of food insecurity in the developing world.

21 June 2022

Sometimes the old notions are the best

Automotive company Polestar has said it wants to break away from traditional paradigms and has described using leather in car interiors as an “old notion”. But finding a leather supplier that can meet its...

14 June 2022

Le Marche: a special case

The war in Ukraine has, understandably, dominated the headlines for months. One of the consequences that has largely gone unnoticed is its effect on the footwear sector in the Italian region of Le Marche.

07 June 2022

Olive-leaf options

Leather manufactured using Wet-Green’s tanning agent, developed from discarded olive leaves, has added to the sustainability story that Škoda is able to share with customers about its first purpose-built...

31 May 2022

Long-lasting and repairable

The European Union wants new rules that will give consumers the right to know how durable and easy-to-repair products are before they buy them.

17 May 2022

Cultural ties

A one-month secondment to share some of her leather technology knowledge with staff and students at Auezov University in Kazakhstan was enough to convince Professor Eser Eke Bayramoglu that the industry there ...

12 May 2022

Spray-on upholstery

With deep roots in the furniture manufacturing sector, start-up Cooloo is making impressive inroads into the vibrant Dutch circular-economy scene with its innovative, waste-consuming leather upholstery.

10 May 2022

Patience pays off

Leathergoods brand Barnes and Moore values the beauty that comes from slow, considered manufacturing – an ethos it has in common with its supplier, J&FJ Baker, a tannery whose leathers take 14 months to...

03 May 2022

Road to recovery

Italy’s leather sector, encouraged by recent comments from Prime Minister Mario Draghi, can be optimistic about contributing to the country’s recovery from covid and to benefiting from a share of European...

26 April 2022

The zero-waste generation

A group of accessories designers is emerging now with a commitment to zero-waste that is so intense, they are not just willing to use leather offcuts, but they prefer to use this previously undervalued...

19 April 2022

Greenwashing has got to go

Years of work in the European Union to develop clear rules for calculating products’ environmental footprint are nearing their conclusion. The leather industry was an early and ardent contributor to this...

29 March 2022

In safe hands

Footwear and leathergoods brands, keen to offer restoration services to their customers, have found a specialist partner they can rely on in The Restory.

22 March 2022

National award winner

The debate about the circular economy is gathering pace in many parts of the world. Leather sometimes seems to be on the periphery of these discussions, but in one South American country, Uruguay, the industry ...

15 March 2022

Erem’s biocircular ambitions

The CEO of a new brand, and great-grandson of the Timberland founder, tells us how leather and sustainable materials are central to his desire to demonstrate a new way of working.

08 March 2022

Truly remarkable

A record year for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for both sales and bespoke work means that its leather workshop is busier and more important than ever.

01 March 2022

An economist’s message of hope

Some of Italy’s 4,000-plus footwear manufacturers are small and, at times, a little fragile, but Milan-based economist Enrica Baccini insists the Italian shoe industry as a whole is “anti-fragile”.

22 February 2022

Soling tradition will live on

Oak bark-tanned leather soles are synonymous with high-quality handmade shoes, so it was a blow to hear in recent months of the loss of one of the oldest manufacturers of this product, J R Rendenbach in...

15 February 2022

A fair COP for leather

Leather had its ups and downs at COP26, but, in the end, it came out of the event well.

25 January 2022

The highs and lows of harvest

Long considered the last word in luxury, reports that Hermès had moved in on mycelium earlier this year suddenly added a certain sheen to the biomaterial which, for many, had not been there before. World...