Metcha Originals product range will help campaign become self-sustaining
The team behind the Leather Naturally campaign hosted a seminar on November 11 to ask companies across the industry to support its youth-facing Metcha social media programme “financially and morally”.
Speaking on behalf of the Metcha management team, Fernando Bellese of PrimeAsia, said fundraising efforts had halted in the early part of this year when covid-19 was confirmed as a pandemic. “The time wasn’t right for fundraising,” he said. However, he pointed out that the programme’s activity on social media, notably Instagram and Facebook, did not stop.
He said there were ambitious plans for 2021, including, in addition to the social media activity, workshops for young designers and collaborations with “at least ten brands” to develop exclusive products under the banner of Metcha Originals.
Mr Bellese said that bringing these products to market and selling them would help make Metcha self-sustaining in a few years’ time. Until then, he said, the campaign requires support and investment from the main players in the industry and he said the management team hopes to raise $1.5 million for Metcha’s work in 2021.
His chief executive at PrimeAsia and chair of the Leather Naturally supervisory committee, Jon Clark, said he was pleased to see different organisations fighting now for the leather industry in “a more united way than ever”. But he said Metcha was a global campaign that was worth supporting too.
“It’s promoting leather as a twenty-first century material,” Mr Clark said. “Its first-year results show that its efforts to reach young consumers are already making a difference to our industry. Metcha is increasing leather’s appeal to the ultimate influencers, youth and it is true value for our marketing dollars.”
Another member of the supervisory committee, Scottish Leather Group director James Lang, commented: “The results show that if we speak with one voice, we can be heard, seen and understood and that, together, we can make a difference.”
