Leather Industry Articles

On Saturday 27th April, during the SLTC Annual Conference and AGM, SLF’s Managing Director, Deborah Taylor, was officially elected as the incoming Vice-President of SLTC. ...more

Arzignano, Vicenza, Italy – Alpe Spak’s new through-feed splitting machine system, the Predator, has been designed to reduce the number of specialised operators, improve worker safety, and improve the quality of the leather.It operates with a patented concept to split in green, lime and now also wet blue.It was developed from ...more

Northampton, UK – Ken Moakes died in April, after a short time in hospital, aged 79, of cardiac and renal failure.To me, starting out with African Leather magazine, He was both advisor and friend. He and the late Barry Nash (and unnamed others) would send me a monthly gossip column on the leather trade – never malicious, but g ...more

"The world has become a crazy place. We are not thinking anymore autonomously but are influenced against our better knowledge about matters that are clear lies but we are induced to accept them as the truth. I looked it up and it’s called ‘double thinking’. People are told to live a sustainable bio-based life and ar ...more

Pretoria, Gauteng, SA – The leather crafting market has picked up, starting last October, but is still nowhere near as buoyant as before or immediately after covid, said Kevin Thompson, director of leather, trims and tools supplier Leatherite International.“Most of last year was a bit tough,” he said. “You can see ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – On the fashion side local manufacturers in general are finding business quite tough. There are manufacturers operating in “niche” areas of the market that are doing quite well.On a more positive note, our school shoe manufacturers seem to be doing okay. On the industrial side we do not really ope ...more

Northampton, UK – I have just finished my time as a volunteer at the museum where Ken was a volunteer. Once again it has all been packed away only for some bits to occasionally be on show at the town museum and other places who are more interested than Northampton - makes me so cross!!I seem to keep busy. I am scanning SLTC back jou ...more

This article is a hybridisation between an artificially generated article and an editor’s contributions in blue. The article was generated using Chat GPT 3.5 and Deepai.org for the image.rnrnChat GPT was asked the question: rnPlease write 1200 words on how human thinkers in the tanning industry will be replaced by artificial intelligence going forward. ...more

IntroductionDepending on the type of leather being produced, hides and skins are normally tanned using either a mineral or a vegetable tanning process. Chrome tanning accounts for more than 90% of the world’s leather production, but there is concern over the environmental impact of this tanning method. Vegetable tanning is a more en ...more

In our modern business landscape, sustainability is no longer just a buzzword; it is a fundamental aspect of corporate responsibility and long-term viability. However, many companies in the leather value chain still struggle to reconcile the seemingly conflicting goals of profitability and sustainability. The consistent misconception is t ...more