S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol88 No9 September 2022
This Magazine is sponsored by SAFLIA
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IN THIS ISSUE:
03 Upfront
- allfashion Sourcing gears up for first show in 3 years.
05 Local Sourcing
- Woolworths: Growing local sourcing and aiming to change mindsets and add design skills, says technical manager, footwear & accessories Jonathan Hagan.
- ...and there was good news for Woolworths' apparel in the annual report.
07 Sport
- Comrades shoe count: Surprisingly consistent, writes The Sweat Shop's Jax Snyman.
09 Innovation
- Introducing Zyler: A new way for consumers to virtually 'try on' garments.
11 The US Market
- Retail rebalances as consumers return to work, school and play.
- Sales of dresses grow 42% and surpass pre-pandemic levels, says NPD.
13 Casual Footwear
- Genuine Grasshoppers: 'Style is just a step away.'
- Rossimoda: Creating legacies since 1977.
15 Safety Footwear
- Foot care in the workplace is more than just appropriate footwear.
19 Notice Board
- Obituary for Katz Footwear's Graeme Katz: Humble, honourable, talented, decent.
Advertisers in this Issue
allfashion Sourcing (01, 05), BBF Safety Group (OFC), Bolton Footwear (07, 09, 10, 11), Freestyle Genuine Handcrafted Leather (02), FrontierCo/Delsey (04), FrontierCo/Busby (06), Italtan (12), S&V Calendar (16), S&V Directory (17), Saddler Belts (03).
In The Next Issue:
- New technology from Simac/Tanning Tech.
Out on October 7
- PRICE:TBAPRICE:TBAPRICE:TBA
Footwear Industry Articles
- Grey Street – memories of an 80s GenX cool dudeJonathan 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 ...more2026 Comrades shoe count: Asics stays top, Adidas up, Nike slides into 4th placeMarathon shoe counts are among the few footwear statistics available in SA. The Sweat Shop’s Jax Snyman has extracted this year’s Comrades Marathon figures for comparison with last year.His assessment: “Asics up. Adidas properly up. New Balance steady although now 3rd largest. Nike down and drop in rankings to 4th. Sauco ...moreThe 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 ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- World first - compost: Possible, desirable, not necessarily simpleThe 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 ...moreSADC Leather Forum unites 16 member states to strengthen the regional leather industryThe Southern African Development Community’s Regional Leather Forum met in Durban, South Africa, in August. Nerisha Jairaj and Jacob Nyathi explain different aspects. ...moreOrganic cotton at the crossroads: Ideology, evidence, and the road aheadWashington, 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 ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- New OHS regulations coming into force later this year mean PPE needs to be reviewed, tooIn March 2025, the Physical Agents Regulations (and their guidelines) and the Noise Exposure Regulations (and their guidelines) of the OHSAct were published, with an 18-month time-period promulgation date to September 2026, allowing employers time to upgrade their Health & Safety requirements to comply with the new published regulatio ...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. ...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 ...more









