S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol88 No1 January 2022
This Magazine is sponsored by SAFLIA
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IN THIS ISSUE:
03 Focus Sector
- Sneakers: If local manufacturing is to grow, it must find a way of getting into this market.
05 The U.S. Market
- Top 5 retail trends to watch in the new year.
06 Sector Reports
- Safety footwear - BBF: Championing local manufacturing in workplace safety solutions.
10 Components
- Logomotif: Branding made visible.
11 Logistics
- The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is developing IT solutions to counter supply bottlenecks.
12 Sustainability
- Huntsman and Shincell create fully recyclable TPU foam for footwear.
13 Italy
- Recovery led by branded exports.
13 Fairs & Events
- Première Vision appoints fashion director.
14 Notice Board
- Nigel Plumpton obituary: The best times in life were around the campfire.
- Chris Bezuidenhout obituary: The Cross Trainer mourns the loss of its GM.
- Ron MacNiven obituary: A corporate man with a rebellious sense of humour.
Advertisers in this Issue
BBF Safety Group (OFC), Caterpillar / Medicus Footwear (05), Freestyle Genuine Handcrafted Leather (02), Italtan (below), S&V Calendar (10), S&V Diretory (11), SA Footwear & Leather Export Council (07), Saddler Belts (06), Soft Wear (04).
In The Next Issue:
- Innovative manufacturers: New ideas, new looks, new ways of doing things.
Out on February 4
- BBF: Championing local manufacturing in workplace safety solutions
Pinetown, KZN, SA - BBF Safety Group is an integrated workplace safety solutions provider that helps customers create safe working environments. BBF was formed on the basis of championing local manufacturing, procurement and SMME development – an objective more relevant now to get the South African economy back on its feet tha ...moreLogomotif: Branding made visible
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - Logomotif, founded in 1997 and 25 years old this year, is an entirely South African business and the only local manufacturer of the moulded branding trims it produces. It has a wide range of branded customers, including clothing and footwear manufacturers. Its custom-made PVC moulded products for clothing, f ...moreHuntsman and Shincell create fully recyclable TPU foam for footwear
The Woodlands, Texas, USA – Huntsman has developed a new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), which is fully recyclable, UV protected and can be extruded into a film and then easily expanded into foamed sheets. The special grade of Irogan TPU was developed by Huntsman, in conjunction with the Shincell New Material Company Ltd, which is ...morePremière Vision: Desolina Suter appointed fashion director
Paris, France - This month, Desolina Suter has joined the Première Vision team as fashion director. Of dual French/Italian origin, she is an expert in materials, colours and trends, and has been Première Vision’s fashion correspondent in Italy for nearly 15 years. She will be in charge of coordinating the Premi&e ...moreObituary: Nigel Plumpton: The best times in life were around the campfire
Obituary: Nigel Plumpton - CNB Industries (29/04/1949-29/10/2021) ...moreObituary: Chris Bezuidenhout - The cross trainer mourns the loss of GM
Obituary: Chris Bezuidenhout - The Cross Trainer (11/12/1951-16/12/2021) Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA - Frame Leisure Trading, T/A The Cross Trainer, is saddened to announce the passing of its beloved General Manager, Chris Bezuidenhout. “Chris spearheaded many businesses, with the inclusion of taking our company and facili ...moreObituary: Ron MacNiven - Bata, Edworks, Decofurn (24/09/1944-09/01/2022) - A corporate man with a rebellious sense of humour
Durban, KZN, SA - Ron arrived in the then Rhodesia from Scotland as a schoolboy. He kept his Scottish accent throughout his life, which I teased him about. I met him in the late 1960s when he was one of Bata's retail shop managers in the then Salisbury. Through various promotions, he became retail personnel m ...moreHandmade Espadril: A touch of the Med
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 ...moreIT solutions for stable supply chainsThe Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, headquartered in Germany, describes itself as the world’s leading applied research organization, and we frequently carry its reports in S&V Footwear & Leather Goods' sister publication, S&V Protect. This report, however, is pertinent for all our publications. ...moreItaly: Recovery led by brand exportsFootwear industry: double-digit recovery in 2021 (turnover +16.2% over 12 months, according to the earliest projections) despite a -10 to -15% gap compared to 2019. Recovery is uneven: the big names are making great progress, while 2 out of 3 companies close the year with revenues below pre-Covid levels. Uncertainty is caused by a fresh o ...more
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Footwear Industry Articles
- Historical highlights: How Rockshoes became Trailmix Trading
Rockshoes was one of the many successful footwear factories in Pinetown in the 1960s through to the early 2000s. Its successor, Trailmix Trading, has repeated that success, as an importer and wholesaler. Here’s how it unfolded. ...moreSAFLEC AGM 2026: A year marked by resilience
On behalf of the Board of Directors, it is my pleasure to welcome all our members and stakeholders to the 24th Annual General Meeting of the South African Leather & Footwear Export Council (SAFLEC).The Annual General Meeting provides us with an opportunity not only to reflect on the performance of the Council over the past financial y ...moreGrey Street – memories of an 80s GenX cool dude
Jonathan Commons, our webmaster, grew up in the Durban of the 1980s. He has a great affection for the Grey Street outfitters of the era, and he wrote these recollections.Oddly enough the news item about the closure of Jay's Outfitters triggered a bit of nostalgia for the good old days when, as a teenager in the 80s, one could hitchhike do ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- When communication moves faster than truth: Why credible, evidence-based information matters more than ever.We have never had more information at our fingertips. We have also never had to work quite so hard to determine which information we should trust. Communication today moves at extraordinary speed. Social media platforms, digital news, corporate communications, industry reports and, increasingly, artificial intelligence allow information t ...moreOrganic cotton at the crossroads: Ideology, evidence, and the road ahead
Washington, DC, U.S.A. (23 June 2026) — Organic cotton occupies one of the most contentious spaces in global agriculture. While praised by brands and consumers for its environmental ideals, it also faces persistent questions about yield stability, certification integrity, and scalability. The current edition of The ICAC Recorde ...moreLuxury or notWe hear from all sides that the leather industry is not doing too well and the conflict in the Middle East is definitely not improving the situation. The present wars have a huge impact on inflation and hence on the buying power of consumers with negative consequences for the luxury industry whose shares we have seen tumbling at the vario ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- Further controls over the import of safety footwear are on the wayOn 03 August 2026, the Safety Footwear Working Group, led by SAFLIA, submitted a request to Minister Tau (dtic) for interim import control measures in respect of specified safety footwear. The request was strongly supported by organised labour and other industry stakeholders.The application was further strengthened by contributions f ...moreSAPEMA demands action against retailer Curve Gear over selling noncompliant safety footwearThe Southern African Protective Equipment Marketing Association (SAPEMA) has reported retailer Curve Gear to the National Regulator for Compulsory Standards (NRCS) for selling “possibly noncompliant” safety footwear.The allegation is because Curve Gear’s safety footwear doesn’t carry mandatory marking: Its NRCS app ...moreRealPPE 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. ...more
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