Footwear - Leather - PPE Industry News & Articles

This month’s article has a personal perspective, perhaps you might say a subjective perspective, and that is the challenge of applying consistent approaches and standards to auditing. I’m speaking here from recent personal experience – names and organisations are excluded for obvious reasons, but the case study is real. ...more

IntroductionBiocides and fungicides are used at different stages of the leather-making process. However, bacteria and fungi are still able to grow on finished leather, and especially vegetable tanned leather. The reason for this is that sweat from footwear can act as a carbon source for microbial growth, or that the concentration of fungi ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA (21 February 2025) – The Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, accompanied by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture, T.P. Madlopha-Mthethwa and industry role-players met with King Misuzulu kaZwelithini at the eMashobeni Royal Palace in Nongoma to discuss the ongoing challenges posed by Foot and Mouth Disea ...more

My favourite way of communication is definitely not social media. We are flooded with nonsense and plainly untrue posts, and I dare say that most have a negative influence on us, on our behaviour and our habits. Personally, I refuse to be told who to vote for, how to dress, what to eat and enrich in the process totally unknown people call ...more

I am not going to defend the brands or auditing systems referred to in the article shared by Sam. I would like to provide some thoughts from my own experiences for some of the drivers for those behaviours.The lack of transparency of parts of the supply chain and the superficiality of auditing systems are not disconnected; they are both af ...more

While some animal welfare organisations are the prime motivators behind anti-leather campaigns, they rely on others to cave in to their campaigns. London Fashion Week this year banned reptile leather. ...more

A new tannery to process cow and goat skins has started near Harare, and is hoping to attract “a retired tanning person” from South Africa for a short period to help set it up.“We have 3 drums and a few machines,” said Hashmook Naran of Tika Shoes, Harare, who is involved in the new business.“We’re curr ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – The third Africa Agri Tech Conference and Exhibition (AAT), taking place from 18 to 20 March 2025 at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria, is the gateway to the latest AgTech breakthroughs.“The biggest challenges facing food producers today – rising input costs, erratic weather, theft, and logis ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA (27 February 2025) – The Department recently received test results confirming the ongoing presence of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) viruses in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Cattle at a dip tank in Mtubatuba have tested positive for FMD. These cattle showed clinical signs of FMD in December, prompting sample collection ...more

Not long ago, Portugal’s footwear industry was on the brink of collapse, drowning under a wave of cheap Chinese imports. Factories shut down, jobs disappeared, and the sector seemed doomed. But instead of fading away, Portugal fought back reinventing itself into one of the world’s most sought-after footwear producers.South Afr ...more

Recent changes to the “de minimis” exemption, which previously allowed packages under $800 to enter the U.S. tax-free, have raised concerns about the future of fast fashion giants Shein and Temu, as well as Amazon’s newest entrant into the market, Amazon Haul. But what’s really at play ...more

The 2024 StockX Current Culture Index reveals some interesting trends in the resale market. Here are some of the key takeaways:SneakersAnta is the fastest-growing sneaker brand on StockX, with a whopping 1,901% trade growth year-over-year. This is largely thanks to Kyrie Irving’s signature shoe, the Kai ...more

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights firm, has initiated a class action lawsuit against Crocs, Inc., representing all purchasers of Crocs common stock between November 3, 2022, and October 28, 2024. The lawsuit alleges that Crocs misled investors regarding its acquisition of HEYDUDE, a casual footwear brand.Key allegations include:1. ...more

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA – Retired former footwear agent Zelton Wiskin died in January, after a long illness, aged 66.Born in Johannesburg, he left school early to work for his stepfather, Aubrey Fuchs, who was also an agent.He represented 2 footwear companies for most of his working career – women’s footwear manufactur ...more

Harare, Zimbabwe – I note Hub Bijsterveld's memorial (09 February) in the Newsletter. Just a snippet about him. He was one of the best, if not the best chemist in the whole of the worldwide Bata Shoe Organisation. We used to have regular annual "Chemeets" in various parts of the world for our Chemists and Hub stood ou ...more

Barry Turner joined British United Shoe Machinery (BUSM) in Port Elizabeth in the 1970s, when PE was still a major footwear manufacturing centre and BUSM was the preeminent machinery and component supplier to the footwear industry. He got in touch with S&V last year looking for fellow BUSM old boy Johannes (Hannes) Harding, who, with ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – The R-CTFL Masterplan – at its most visible level – has come to a halt.The government-funded contract for the project co-ordinators, B&M Analysts (BMA), ended at the end of last year, and has thus far not been renewed.That has meant that the weekly and monthly PMO meetings, the interface betw ...more

Brussels, Belgium (06 February 2025) – The European Commission has asked online fast-fashion retailer Shein to provide internal documents and more detailed information on risks linked to the presence of illegal goods and content on its marketplace, the EU executive said on Thursday.Shein said it welcomes "efforts that enhance t ...more

Zelton Wiskin, my friend.I'm sure you won't mind me sharing a fond memory of you with the shoe industry.In the good old days as shoe agents, we became good friends. You were taught by one of the best in the business (Aubrey). In those days we knew how to have fun and entertain our customers who became our friends.My best memory was when w ...more

The fundamental function of retanning has been to impart the final crust leather properties to the leather. The strength, softness, grain break, crust resistance (sweat, fastness, water spotting), fullness, drape, roundness, run, and nap properties; are common properties imparted by a typical retannage. The traditional leather science tex ...more