Footwear - Leather - PPE Industry News & Articles

S&V has been a window onto the soul of the leather, footwear and leather goods industries for decades, and like them, has reinvented itself many times This is an anniversary year for S&V. An 85th anniversary. I very much doubt many other industries in South Africa have a trade publication which has published continuously for ...more

Durban, KZN, SA - Footwear production during the first 2 quarters of 2020 fell by 34.84% by comparison with the same period in 2019, according to the SAFLIA Digest for January to June, released last month.Pairage dropped from 24.4 million pairs to 15.9 million.The value of ex-factory sales dropped by 31.2%, from R2.7 billion to close to R ...more

Pinetown, KZN, SA - The Components Cluster, the newest cluster in the leather value chain, was proposed as a means of resurrecting South Africa's components manufacturing capacity, decimated during the long years of imported footwear domination.Cluster chairman and Apeco MD Mark Gibbings said trying to get it up and running had been " ...more

Durban, KZN, SA - The cost of synthetic upper materials, which are currently all imported, mostly from China, has risen steeply this year, according to Garth Ribbink, member of A. Greenaways (Natal) (Pty) Ltd, one of the leading importers.He forwarded correspondence from suppliers in China.One wrote: "During [the past] one month, th ...more

Hammarsdale, KZN, SA - In terms of shoe products, I can see a trend with my customers wanting to us to re-develop current products to make them more “affordable” However, we are not too keen on this as we do not believe in “messing” with our quality just to enter a price war. Where we can re-engineer something for ...more

Pinetown, KZN, SA - In correspondence with Hans Beier, Chairman Emeritus of the Beier Group (Pty) Ltd over plans to resurrect local manufacturing of synthetic upper materials for footwear, he wrote: "Yes, we have developed a 1.8mm PU school shoe upper material which is presently undergoing field trials and laboratory approvals agains ...more

Durban, KZN, SA - Next year is going to be amazing.  Our wholesale clients have doubled and we have successfully launched our e-commerce store and our well received in-house range.  We have a growing database of customers for the brand, Nēo, and number of repeat orders. There are boutiques country wide interested in s ...more

Pietermaritzburg, KZN, SA - Dicks has two distinct revenue streams, the first being through our commercial business generated through sales from its several brands. The bulk of these sales are usually focussed in the second half of the year. Although men’s formal footwear is predicted to decline as more consumers work from home, we ...more

Sports retail under COVID-19 has been a roller coaster, and the Q3 (July-September 2020) results continue to show this bumpy trend. Athletic footwear sales in July were down in the high single-digits, then declined in the high teens in August (one of the market’s most important months of the year), and in September grew in the mid-t ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - On behalf of the Messe Frankfurt South African team, we would like to thank our exhibitors, sponsors, partners and attendees for their participation at the virtual edition of allfashion sourcing, a digital business oriented marketplace for the textile and fashion industry.         “C ...more

At the end of 2020 we asked various businesses operating within the footwear and leather goods industry for  their 2021 forecast for the sector. ...more

Rayton, Gauteng, SA - The hunting and taxidermy sectors are awaiting the easing of restrictions on the transport of trophies and game skins across provincial boundaries, and on a broader definition of allowed hunting, before they can resume commercially viable operations. "There are so many apparent contradictions in the rules," ...more

Lusaka, Zambia – Zambia’s crocodile farmers are poised to upscale investment, production and exports of skins following government’s intervention to suspend the 10% export duty on the industry. The removal of the 10% duty on crocodile skins has made some positive impact on the viability of the crocodile business, says th ...more

Chromium and the circular bioeconomy. Why does chromium not do so well in a circular bioeconomy? Can chromium build up in the biosphere and give us problems with plant-stunting? Can chromium be recycled more easily in a technosphere circular economy? Why don’t we recycle it more? ...more

The previous 25 articles in this series have discussed the different clean technology options that are available to the tanner in the beamhouse and tanyard. This article will focus on the clean technology that is available in the dyehouse that can help the tanner reduce the environmental impact of the dyehouse processes. Many of the clean ...more

Edcon, once the biggest fashion retailer in SA, went into business rescue at the end of April. CEO Grant Pattison, in charge for the past 2 years, blamed the lockdown as the final straw in the long slide which began in 2007 when it was acquired by US private equity firm Bain Capital for a - with hindsight - unsustainable R25 billion and d ...more

Most companies' disaster recovery plans didn't make provision for a virus-inspired national lockdown. Many companies, across all industries, have a business continuity plan of some sort, but this time they got punched in the face and caught with their pants down. Protection of profits and defending the bottom line is now more imperative t ...more

Dangee Carken: Perhaps this will be the catalyst for changeRobby Stoller, MD. Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA- Retailing is restricted to winter footwear. Do you have stock which you believe would qualify?Of course we qualify. We have brought in boots and closed footwear for the winter season. Most of our stock has been delivered to the trade a ...more

Appointment: Charles Atala, secretary of the General Goods, Bags & Leather Employers' AssociationJohannesburg, Gauteng, SA - Charles Atala was appointed secretary of the General Goods, Bags & Leather Employers Association of SA in June last year following the death of long-serving secretary Theo Hefer. His background includes clie ...more