Puma’s recent decision to significantly reduce leather usage in its footwear is a clear reflection of the evolving landscape of the fashion industry, driven primarily by the preferences of the younger generation. Gen Y, Z, and Alpha, who collectively make up around 65% of the U.S. population, are increasingly pri ...more

By common consent, 2024 has been a difficult year for almost all businesses, organisations, government departments and people in the SA leather value chain. The main exceptions would have been successful exporters, because the domestic market has been getting poorer year after year. The underlying reasons are mostly to do with the policie ...more

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – The NCRF has 10 members with very different approaches to all sorts of things, so a forecast is difficult.We’re keeping an eye on factors including reduced interest rates, the two-pot retirement system, and political outcomes, and there is a degree of optimism, but I’m not willing to attach any f ...more

Oudtshoorn, W. Cape, SA – Newald Groenewald rejoined Ostrich Products SA (OPSA) in September as tannery manager.He started at the then Klein Karoo International in 1991 before joining OPSA as tannery manager in 2015. He joined Le Croc as tannery manager in 2021, and left there earlier this year.  ...more

Africa, specifically South Africa, leads the world in the traceability of leather, especially crocodilian and ostrich leather. Created decades ago, the trace and tracking system adapted for the high value exotic skins was implemented to prevent skin theft, and to monitor the value of skins (to enable the final payment to co-operative farm ...more

Publicity has always been a very important trade tool and its use to sell products goes back ‘ages’. The use of publicity is becoming more and more important as people, the consumers, are not thinking anymore with their own heads, but follow what others, so-called self-promoted influencers, tell them how to behave, how to dres ...more

Chemnitz, Germany (02 September 2024) – More charging power, higher range, lower environmental impact: In the COOLBat joint research project, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU have teamed up with partners to develop next-generation battery enclosures for electric vehicles. Th ...more

Bremerhaven, Germany (02 September 2024) – Public power grids are highly complex systems. Wind turbine manufacturers have to comply with technical guidelines when connecting new turbines to avoid putting grid stability at risk. In the Mobil-Grid-CoP project, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES have d ...more

Kaiserslautern, Germany (02 September 2024) – The new European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is intended to prevent goods marketed in the EU from contributing to the spread of deforestation. When a wood product is brought into the EU market, for example, there must be documentation of which types of wood were used to produce it, a ...more