S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol82 No9 Nov 2019
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IN THIS ISSUE:
3 Business Barometer
- Tavonga Gonyora, Dick Whittington Shoes: Anticipating improvement.
- Fiona Dale, AFD Industries: Leather easier to source, but getting good price for finished article is difficult.
- Morné Howell, Afro-Thai Industries: Growing customer base, bringing in new brand, and confident for 2020.
5 Businesses
- TWFG launches Lonsdale and plans to unveil another global brand shortly.
- Leg up for new sneaker brand Corks.
- Enlite Agencies represents Bata and Skechers and offers local sourcing.
7 Opinion
- Sneakernomics: Holiday 2019 predictions for sports retail.
8 Doing Things Differently
- Nick & Nichols: Bags made from recycled tyre inner tubes.
10 Shoe Repairing
- Vaal University of Technology and Brumby Shoe Components offer course.
11 Sustainability
- How footwear brands are leveraging partnerships and materials as demand for sustainability grows.
12 And Now For Something Completely Different
- The curious origin of the high heel.
13 International
- Under Armour under pressure.
- Italian footwear exports up by 7% by value.
14 Going Home
- European Commission launches project to attract young talent to the industry.
15 Marketing
- Digital marketing: Your audience is waiting, says Shikaar Mahabir of Activate.
16 Trends
- Miss Black.
- UrbanArt.
- Micam preview for autumn/winter 2020/21.
- The white sneaker phenomenon.
20 Notice Board
- Obituary: Ben Cartoon - A world-class figure in the belt industry.
- Obituary: Howard Spiro - 'Proper old school' in the most positive sense of the term.
Advertisers in this Issue
Activate (2), Chillisource/Shoepack (6), Creative Leathergoods Manufacturers (4), Kaytex Belts (8), Mossop Leather (OFC), Strassberger's (9), TWFG (OFC).
Footwear Industry Articles
- Julz Shoes launches men’s range
Sneaker and moccasin style samples from the men’s range.Port Elizabeth, E. Cape, SA – Women’s leather comfort/lifestyle brand Julz Shoes has launched a men’s collection under the brand Will’s Shoes.Both ranges are “locally designed, made offshore”, GM Hayley Barker said.“Julz has built a loy ...moreAn industry with distinctive material riches, unable to sufficiently convert them into finished goods in a world class way“The project’s purpose,” said Courtney Grant, “is to be a robust, evidence-based strategy to address the leather and general goods sector’s challenges and unlock its growth potential.”The main headings of her presentation were:Creating the groundwork for a National Leather and General Goods Strategy:Fro ...moreNational Leather and General Goods Strategy WorkshopOn 23 June, following months of fieldwork, B&M Analysts (BMA) hosted an online workshop to discuss the recovery of the handbags, belts, travel goods and allied manufacturing industries in SA.The industries, although very diverse, fall under the General Goods & Handbags Sector of the National Bargaining Council of the Leather Indus ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- Improving the strength and softness of crust leather through pressure treatment
IntroductionRetanning and fatliquoring have a major impact on the characteristics of leather, whereas dyeing and the finishing concentrate on the appearance of the leather. Various retanning agents and fatliquoring agents have been developed to improve the softness and mechanical strength of leather, parameters that are important to the b ...moreSam Setter's 'Pills': A different perspectiveOne reader, Marc, commented on my March Pill: ‘Sam, the real frustration isn’t the criticism itself. It’s that we haven't been able to get our message outside our own echo chamber. I'm interested. How would you see the leather industry actually breaking through that barrier? In 2026, trust rarely comes from industry stat ...moreRemoval of bisphenol compounds from leather using laccase enzymes
IntroductionBisphenol A (BPA), Bisphenol F (BPF), and Bisphenol S (BPS) are chemicals that have been shown to exhibit estrogenic effects and reproductive toxicity. These compounds disrupt hormonal balance, leading to reproductive and developmental toxicity, neuroendocrine dysfunction, immune system suppression, DNA damage, and chromosoma ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- RealPPE Marketplace: Where safety meets smarter procurementRealPPE Marketplace is a 100% black women-owned B2B PPE marketplace built for South African industry. Founded after years of witnessing safety officers and procurement teams lose time to fragmented suppliers, inconsistent pricing, and missing documentation, RealPPE was created to bring structure and reliability to industrial PPE sourcing. ...moreWhat if the respirator you rely on to protect your health never sealed properly?
I had the opportunity to present at the first PPE Conference in RSA, where I shared some early work we) have been exploring towards developing respirator designs better suited to the South African population.Below is a short AI-generated summary of the core message of the presentation.Respirators are often the last line of defence against ...moreThe PPE Conference – PPE isn’t optional, it’s essential: A review
Leighton Bennett, the Safety First Association chairperson and a SHE and risk management consultantThe hosts of this first PPE Conference held in South Africa, were the Safety First Association and SAPEMA, on the 10 and 11 March 2026, at the Emperor’s Palace, in Kempton Park.This conference objectives were to provide a unique opport ...more
