Sam Setter's 'Pills': For readers who need some wry medicinal humour

It’s the middle-class market, not the rich, where the real money is
Although I fully realise that luxury is a very important factor for the leather industry, I believe that we focus too much on this particular sector, and forget the day-to-day use of leather. There aren’t too many people who can afford a €100 000 bag, a €1 000 wallet or a €5 000 pair of shoes. I think, being optimistic, that you can count them – globally – as a few million. Instead, being conservative, there are maybe a billion people who can afford a €200 bag, a €100 wallet or a €100 pair of shoes. The mathematics are (according to me) easy: you make more money from a billion customers than from a million customers. The sustainable leather alternative materials, not the fossil fuel-based ones, focus on the mainstream customers, the billions. The big brands are not making their money just from their bags, wallets and footwear. They are immensely diversified, both in materials (of which leather is just one), and in products, which also include jewellery, eyewear, cosmetics…the list is potentially endless. Hence we should also diversify and stop thinking just of the brands as the principal customers. They don’t look at us as their principal suppliers! They produce whatever product generates a profit from whatever raw material suits their purpose. So, let’s stop kowtowing to the brands who negotiate the blood from under our nails and focus on the billion who let us make a profit.