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
- The showroom pair is not the orderA shoe on a showroom table is wonderfully persuasive. A buyer can flex the forefoot, press the heel counter, check the stitching, compare the two shoes and turn the pair over to examine the sole. Colour, finish and hand feel are all there to judge.The purchase order may then reduce that pair to a short line: one style number, one colour d ...moreNike claims ‘mental benefits’ from new styles, observers take wait-and-see approach
Nike makes big technical claims for a category of non-sport footwear (their description: pre-game and post-game) launched in January.Certainly not the first footwear to incorporate underfoot pressure points, ‘Nike Mind Technology’ is 2 shoes – a mule and a sneaker (in different colour options) – which Nike says lit ...moreA perspective: Perhaps it was an eye-opener for industry players to hear each otherLooking back over the workshop, BMA consultant Justin Snelling wrote: “In terms of our reflections of the workshop, we covered a lot of territory. Perhaps though what was most encouraging was the breadth of participation from different segments of the sector and their willingness, or even excitement, to contribute. We don’t ta ...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 ...moreBeyond the data trap: Why better decisions matter more than just more data
On 1st July 2026 I presented at the FILK Leather Days conference and asked the delegates to consider “Sustainability through a new lens: resetting how we view impacts in the leather value chain”. This month’s article therefore explores this idea a little more with a focus on how we view data and whether it can blind us t ...moreWorld first - compost: Possible, desirable, not necessarily simple
The world of compostable leather is not as historically accurate as the industry would like it to be. The definition of leather is: “hide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact, tanned to be imputrescible (rot-proof). Hair or wool may or may not have been removed, and the material can include split layers or ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- RealPPE Marketplace: Where safety meets smarter procurement
RealPPE 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. ...moreFurther 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 ...morePerformance testing: Building credibility in the modern apparel and footwear market
The lines between protective wear, sportswear, outdoor apparel, wellness clothing and everyday fashion continue to blur. Consumers increasingly expect garments and footwear to deliver more than style alone. Whether purchasing workwear, running apparel, outdoor footwear, school shoes or everyday casual products, buyers now look for comfort ...more
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