Footwear - Leather - PPE Industry News & Articles

Pinetown, KZN, SA - As a BBF Safety Group product, Lemaitre Safety Footwear is driven by passion, dedication, pride and a commitment to high-quality products that keep those who build South Africa safe. For over 30 years, Lemaitre has continued to cater for all industries. Our hand-made safety shoes help the tough South African workforce to continue building a stronger nation step by step. ...more

With the COVID lifestyle in flux, pricing has taken on new importance this year. Consumer lifestyles have changed significantly over the past two years, and many of those changes will remain after the pandemic is behind us. Even as more consumers return to work, the pandemic lifestyle likely will not shift back entirely to pre-pandemic modes. ...more

28 February 2022 - Prices will continue to rise but at a more modest rate over the next two years, as more promotional activity resumes. ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA (1 February 2022) - The Southern African Vinyls Association (SAVA) has welcomed the plastics recycling report for 2020 released by Plastics SA, indicating that the recycling of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) or vinyl products in South Africa recorded a year-on-year increase of 9.5 %. ...more

The footwear trade fair goes green with a dedicated area, new certification mark, and a robust awareness-raising activity aimed at the footwear industry ...more

Shoemakers who know Jean Teplitsky genuflect when they mention his name. He, however, is quite humble. What is the inspiration for your brand/styling/concept? My inspiration is contemporary style integrated with classic techniques elevating the product to the highest level, while always trying to balance comfort, aesthetic and q ...more

Patricia Terre is Spanish. With local Rizqah Isaacs, she co-founded Handmade Espadril in 2014. She studied fashion styling at Central Saint Martins in London and both worked in retail with first line and luxury brands for years. "We lived surrounded by some of the most exclusive brands in the world, which taught us everything we know ...more

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA - The Dakotas footwear brand - which was bought from the liquidators of Footwear Direct in July - "is back up and running", and is the subject of a raft of plans, says Clive Pozniak, MD of Supreme Hat & Cap (Pty) Ltd, the new owners of Dakotas Supreme, a headwear manufacturer, and its sister company ...more

Pinetown, KZN, SA - Women are making up a greater proportion of the workforce, and this includes sectors that have typically been male-dominated such as mining, manufacturing and construction. However, there are still limited offerings in specialised female safety footwear within these sectors.  “This is why Sisi Safety Wear is ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - The move to direct-to-consumer sales by global brands "leaves the door wide open for us", says Gary van Rooyen, who last year agreed a licensing deal with Bolton Footwear to take over the Olympic International sports footwear brand.  "I find it sad that solid independent retailers who helped Ni ...more

Gap opens for middle tier brands as top ones abandon independents Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - "If you're confused about the status of school and amateur sport in South Africa this year, join the club," said Mike Augoustides, a partner with his brother, Casey, in Mike's Sports, Cape Town, W. Cape, SA. "Communication by the ...more

The Woodlands, Texas, USA (27 January 2022) – Footwear experts at Huntsman have helped KEEN, Inc. develop a range of sneakers with plant-based soles. The Field to Foot (F2F) sneakers were created by KEEN’s 'advanced concepts team', using a bio-based polyurethane system from Huntsman that contains a by-product from agricultural ...more

This was intended to be a one-off feature, but it's become clear that there are many more businesses - and many more takes on how to do business - than could be included in a single issue. So now the intention is to make this a regular segment in the monthly magazine. As an introduction, it seems to S&V that there are 2 parallel leath ...more

26 January 2022 - The U.S. sports retail business was very disrupted in 2020 and 2021. Earlier trends reversed themselves and different ones emerged. Old habits were shed, and new ones replaced them. We can expect dramatic shifts to take hold once again in 2022. Macro trends in sports retailFirst, direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives ...more

Watching a colleague in pain, or being loaded into an ambulance, sends a shiver down the spine of even the most heartless tanner. Work-related accidents that arise from health and safety emergencies do still occur in factories across the world. ...more

Grahamstown, E. Cape, SA - This article is a summary of practical experience that was gained by a tanner working in a shoe upper tannery over a period of close to 40 years. ...more

The hunting, taxidermy and game skin industry in SA is faced with another campaign to ban it and its products - this time in the UK. Pieter Erasmus of the SA Taxidermy & Tannery Association (SATTA) explains the background and the threats this poses. ...more

The leather industry - especially the exotic leather industry - has to accept that it will not be treated fairly. So, like Caesar's wife, it must be above suspicion ...more

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA (27 January 2022): After a bullish start to the 2021/22 agriculture season with prospects of another excellent season despite cost pressures, the sector faces a further challenge of increased cost of debt following the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) decision to raise its repo rate by 0.25% and subsequently the prime lending rate to 7.5%. Although likely to be cautious, expectations are for further increases of 125 basis points through to 2023. ...more

Chimica Vemar is the Silver Sponsor of the III IULTCS Eurocongress Vicenza 2022 in September. The company has supplied high quality chemical products, with a range of over 2000 products, inclusive of all stages of leather tanning, for over 30 years. ...more