Footwear - Leather - PPE Industry News & Articles

The latest BMI Report unequivocally positions North America as the largest and most attractive clothing and footwear market globally. Companies in the industry should recognize the immense opportunities awaiting them in this dynamic market.Why North America Is So AttactiveThe North American region’s appeal is grounded in a ...more

Here's a story that speaks of a journey from America, where buffalo hides are tanned, to Portugal, where value is added by transforming the leather into boots. The journey then returns to America, where these boots are sold for a whopping $429! The story touches on topics such as research and development, storytelling marketing, niche marketing and more. Most importantly, I'm hoping the story will illustrate the possibilities that exist in the industry. ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Director Adam Young said Rowdy Bags has been in business for 12 years, and is already a consistent exporter. Its principal markets are in the UK and Switzerland, followed by Australia and Germany, and together they account for 30% of Rowdy Bags’ business by turnover? / units?“Export is the way fo ...more

To prove a point – that Southern African footwear manufacturers can be part of the global industry, contributor Tinashe Mandirahwe, a former Zimbabwean now writing from Canada, has chosen South African and Zimbabwean examples to illustrate a global trend. “Tactical footwear covers diverse applications,” he writes. “They can be drivers of growth.” ...more

Blantyre, Malawi – My father, Mussa Hajat, passed away in the early hours on Monday 22 January 2024, aged 90.He was still fully active and working up until Christmas.He was affectionately known as Mussa Footwear and was a true giant in the footwear scene in this country ever since he left Bata and established his own business in 196 ...more

For the first time, the Las Vegas Magic show featured an African Textiles and Apparel Pavilion, hosting 68 exhibitors from 35 countries, and organised and sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Africa Trade and Investment programme (USAID ATI) and theProsper Africa US Trade & Investment initiative.The ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA (31 January 2024) – Source: SARS.Including Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia (BELN)Cumulative tradeTrade balance R'm (13 795 684 796)Ratio (exports/imports) 0.24Monthly tradeTrade balance R'm (962 390 982)Ratio (exports/imports) 0.31ExportsMonth % of total 0.26Cumulative 2022 (R'm) 3  ...more

Windhoek, Namibia – I have been appointed MD of Nakara Tannery & Manufacturing as of January, and I am pleased to report that Nakara has been audited by the Sustainable Leather Foundation and that it is now an SLF compliance partner.With regards to the benefits and learnings during the auditing process:The SLF auditing process b ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – Pieter Swart, the current President of the SA Taxidermy & Tannery Association (SATTA), was elected as the Sustainable Use Coalition Southern Africa (SUCo-SA)* Chairman late in 2023.  He entered the wildlife industry as a part time professional hunter and outfitter in the early 90s shortly after ...more

Kafue, Zambia – Topsoil General Dealers was registered as a company in 2009 as a raw hides and skins trading company.  The company supplies good quality raw hides and skins to local tanneries to be processed into leather as a way of value addition.The raw hides not fit for leather processing are sundried and exported for food t ...more

A recent paper in the Journal of Coastal Research has sparked interest in the value that environmental services play in a local economy (van Heerden and Snyder, 2013). Anyone would have predicted that there is economic value in keeping wild areas intact.The American alligator was under direct threat in 1973 - listed as EN (endangered) on ...more

Part 2. The effect of calcium content on the enzymatic bating, elastin removal and collagen degradation of delimed hides (Editor’s note: Part 1 was in S&V African Leather, Vol. 17, No. 11, November 2023, and is available on the website, www.svmag.co.za) ...more

On 12-13th February SLF deliverED a 2-day workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe where tanneries from Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Zambia cAme together to participate.This was a continuation of the work under the SIPS project that began last year, and the last issue of S&V African Leather reported on the positive results of the work already complet ...more

The EU bureaucracy is often a pain in a certain place (just ask the European farmers) because its directives are often interfering with tradition at great loss for small enterprises, always favouring big (multinational) companies. This time the EU centred the bullseye with the Green Claim Directive, EUGCD, which if implemented, would be a ...more

The 2024 edition of APLF Leather will be held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 19 - 21 March, concurrently with its sister events, Materials+ and Fashion Access.The importance of APLF as ‘the meeting place of the global leather industry’ is borne out by the combination of institutional and comme ...more

Bader SA and Karan Beef have confirmed that the agreement whereby Bader SA buys all Karan Beef hides is still in place.Karan, which is a vertically integrated feedlot, abattoir and meat wholesaling business, slaughters around 2 000 cattle per day. The hides are third party wet blue tanned.Bader SA COO Robert O’Connell said the ...more

I'm sad to say that after 33 years I have left SA for France because the work in SA was not as fulfilling as it was in the past. I'm now working for CET outside Juvardeil in Western France. CET is part of a large abattoir group, Bigard, which is the largest meat processor in France.CET is a wet blue plant supplying wet blue and wet white ...more

Charlie Manolis is chief scientist at Wildlife Management International in Karama, Northern Territory, Australia, and he is also a co-chair of the CSG. Below, he says crocodilian farming has more-or-less eradicated poaching, but that other human pressures threaten many crocodilian species.rn ...more

In other news, on Wednesday 17th January 2024, the EU overwhelmingly voted for the adoption of the Green Claims Directive, with 593 votes in favour, 21 against and 14 abstentions. The Directive that is designed to prevent companies from misleading consumers through “greenwashing” or vague marketing claims, will now go for Cou ...more

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA (30 January 2024) – The agricultural landscape is undergoing a significant transformation as the traditional practice of mono-cropping, where a single crop variety is planted extensively across vast tracts of land, is rapidly fading. Sustainable crop production now demands urgent attention towards diversify ...more