Footwear - Leather - PPE Industry News & Articles

Randburg, Gauteng, SA – Tifosi Sports “will be looking to establish a relationship with a meaningful international sports brand” when Swiss running shoe brand On moves to a new distributor in January, CEO Nick Zografos said last week. “We’re in discussions with a number of them.”Tifosi Sports has repres ...more

Goleta, California, USA (23 October 2025) – Hoka grew by 11.1% to US$634.1 million and Ugg grew by 10.1% to $759.6 million in Deckers Brands’ second fiscal quarter ended 30 September, the company announced.Sales of its ‘other brands’, now mainly Teva and Ahnu following the phase-out of its Koolaburra operations, de ...more

This is the peak season for retailers to stock school shoes, the unglamorous staple which underpins so much of the SA footwear industry. Palm Footwear is one of the most successful school shoe suppliers, and here MD Rajeev Pattundeen answers our questions about what consumers expect and retailers need from this category, and what the future holds. ...more

As U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports climb to 125%, Skechers is stepping away from public markets to rethink its strategy. ...more

Pinetown, KZN, SA – BBF Safety Group has appointed Ndlela Mazibuko as MD, effective 1 November 2025. He will work alongside the BBF Safety Group CEO, Brian Kuhnert, and the Beier Group CEO, Warren Sachs, in growing the customer centric focus of the business.In a release, BBF wrote:A seasoned industrialist and inclusive leader, Ndle ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Miles O’Brien went to Progress College in Rondebosch and studied marketing at Cape Technikon. His first job was at Standard Bank in Plumstead for a short period of time, then onto the City Tramways for 10 years.Sportshoe was owned by Benny Stoltzman (who also owned Vogue Shoes) who had the agency for A ...more

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA – Digital Wellness has been appointed by Mizuno Europe as the new Mizuno Footwear distributor for Southern Africa.It was previously distributed by Performance Endurance Solutions.Brian Kerby will continue with the brand, filling the role of Mizuno Brand Manager. He and Digital Wellness MD Ricky West respond ...more

On the 28 June 2025 episode of The Energy Blueprint Podcast, Xero Shoes co-founder Steven Sashen made a striking claim: a major sports brand secretly tested a more natural shoe that cut injury rates by half compared to their top-selling model — and then shelved it.A more natural shoe, as Sashen describes, is desi ...more

Counterfeiting is no longer confined to imitation designer goods sold in back-alley markets. It has become a widespread and organised trade that threatens fair competition and the rights of legitimate businesses. At its simplest, counterfeiting means the deliberate manufacture and sale of goods calculated to resemble genuine branded produ ...more

This is my last contribution to this series of events. I have thoroughly enjoyed stepping back into the days when travelling to find new designs was real travel.My final contribution is to say that with all that happened there were a lot of positives also achieved. I managed to visit some international manufacturing facilit ...more

Langenfeld, Germany – Kaija Korolainen was appointed Group Chief People Officer (CPO) on 01 July and Samer Al Jabi was appointed Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) on 01 September.Kaija has a strong track record of strategic HR leadership across multiple industries and geographies. At TFL, she is responsible for ...more

Leather users have long joked about how good it would be to have square hides…thanks to the demand for gelatine, maybe that’s not so far away ...more

Development aid: What happened in Ethiopia demonstrates that plans by governments, UNIDO and NGOs that don’t take into account economic realities will failWhat follows is just an example of many similar situations in the whole spectrum of development aid for the leather industry in a variety of countries and in Africa in particular. ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – “Obviously FMD has an effect, you only have to look at the meat prices to see that,” said Gerrie de Jager, MD of Brits Leather Group’s Rosslyn Tannery. “All the red tape and protocols for biosecurity associated with FMD add further costs to a stressed market.“Fortunately, the Sta ...more

Port Elizabeth, E. Cape, SA – We are still fortunate to have a solid business in difficult times. But we are positive. Always on the lookout for new opportunities.We do actually have a new fungicide that we are launching. Locally manufactured with international backing, very modern technology. More in the next issue.  ...more

Durban, KZN, SA – Fredisco Dyes and Chemicals (Pty) Ltd is fortunate to be servicing clients in both the leather and textile industries. With a bit of luck, when one industry does poorly, the other does a bit better! Currently our leather customers seem to be doing well. We have seen strong demand for our leather dyes from tanneries ...more

Boksburg, Gauteng, SA – During 2022/23 my wife fell ill with Covid and we decided to get our daughter, Tania Ellis, involved in the business to enable me to spend more time with Alice. Alice eventually passed away 17th January 2024 after 55 years of married life and as we’re all getting older, I decided to keep Tania on, with ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Puma – along with Adidas, its arch rival here, globally and in their joint hometown, Herzogenaurach – has a long history in South Africa.Next year marks 25 years of Puma Sports SA (Pty) Ltd as a wholly owned subsidiary of Puma SE, following a decade or more under licensee Jagsports. “It&rsq ...more

Richard Kushlick runs footwear education and training programmes for all tiers of the industry (https://footweareducation.co.za/).Starting this month, he will write columns on various topical subjects for S&V. In this issue, he covers a complaint which retailers often face from consumers – sole degradation in soles made from cre ...more

Pinetown, KZN, SA – 6 months after the closure of Shoetech Engineering, its successor company, Shoet3ch Consumables (Pty) Ltd, has opened premises back in Pinetown.“This is of course a business decision,” said Shoet3ch director Nicky Hawkins, daughter of the late Shoetech owner, Eckehard Schumann, “but it’s a ...more