S&V African Leather Magazine Vol18 No9 September 2024
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IN THIS ISSUE:
02 Sam Setter’s ‘Pills’
- A new quip from Sam Setter in each issue.
04 Upfront
- Retail attitudes to footwear leather: A mixed picture.
06 An Eclectic View
- Anaerobic leather: There’s more to this than finding ancient Roman sandals in waterlogged soil, writes correspondent H. Procter.
09 Leather, Its Image & Its Place In The World
- Leather in an evolving automotive market: Yes, there are challenges, but leather remains a popular choice, writes the Sustainable Leather Foundation’s Deborah Taylor.
11 Decoding Tanning Science
- Enzymatic removal of proteoglycans in hides promotes opening-up of collagen fibre bundles: Review by Dr Clive Jackson-Moss of a paper in JALCA.
14 Weights & Measures
- Compiled by the ISTT.
15 Notice Board
- IULTCS Young Leather Scientist Grant Programme 2025 announced.
- Obituary: Roger Rowswell – a gentle, decent man who contributed to a better environment professionally and personally.
Advertisers in this Issue
Authenticae (08), International School of Tanning Technology (ISTT) (OFC), Mimosa (03), Rolfes Leather Division (05), S&V Calendar (01), S&V Directory (07), Southern African Footwear & Leather Export Council (SAFLEC) (04), Sustainable Leather Foundation (10).
- ANAEROBIC LEATHER
Anaerobic leather - most people have heard of the leather find that was a shoe or a bag from antiquity, stored in a preservation condition that has allowed the relic to last several hundred years without being broken down. Is this the model of how, as a material, leather can be stored in a fossilised form taking carbon out of the atmosphe ...moreLeather in an evolving automotive market…
Much has been written about the changes that our industry is dealing with, as it undergoes significant transformation to adapt to an evolving market shaped by consumer demand, technological innovation, environmental concerns, and regulation. ...moreA gentle, decent man who contributed to a better environment professionally and personally
Obituary: Roger Alec Rowswell – Somerset West Municipality, Cape Town Municipality, Leather Industries Research Institute, Tannery Environmental Consultancy Services (12/01/1948 – 20/08/2024) ...moreEnzymatic removal of proteoglycans in hides promotes opening-up of collagen fibre bundles
IntroductionWhen a hide loses moisture, the proteoglycans present in the hide stick the collagen fibres together. This negatively impacts the penetration of water and other chemicals into the hides during processing, and also the opening-up of the collagen fibres and hence the softness of the leather. It is therefore ideal to remove prote ...moreSam Setter's 'Pills': For readers who need some wry medicinal humour" HilariousThe industrial promotion section of the Rwandan Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced that the country intends to develop a tannery park in the Bugesera special economic zone near the border with Burundi. When one talks about a tannery park, one imagines a minimum of a dozen tanneries, and another dozen shoe and lea ...moreRetail attitudes to leather: A mixed pictureCarletonville, Gauteng, SA – Mohammed Laher, sole proprietor of 6-store mini-chain Textile Wholesalers, said leather remained a priority for his customers.He said formal footwear – which is all leather – was “a much smaller category than before”, but that “the better end of casual footwear is predominan ...moreIULTCS Young Leather Scientist Grant Programme 2025 announcedThe IULTCS Young Scientist Grant Programme for 2025 is underway. The details follow and further information can be found on the IULTCS website https://iultcs.org/ or by contacting the IUR chair, Dr Volker Rabe (Volker.rabe@tfl.com).Background:The IULTCS is committed to co-operation between the individual member societies and to providing ...moreFootwear Industry Articles
- How FootJoy’s superbly crafted shoes influenced my life
An Informative & Nostalgic Letter written in April 2025 to two executives at Acushnet (USA) – A leading golf corporation which includes FootJoy Shoes.RE: FootJoy & II recall the very first pair of FootJoy golf shoes my late father bought for me in July 1976. This wasn’t my first interaction with the brand that I had al ...moreObituary: Joe McGinley, Conshu (14/04/1936-20/05/2026) He ran an empire, but kept a human touch
Somerset West, W. Cape, SA – Joseph Pascal McGinley, the former Conshu director who died in May, a month after his 90th birthday, was a larger-than-life character who was renowned during his career in SA for his kindness, and who lived life to the full.Born in Letterkenny, Donegal, Ireland, to Joseph and Madeline McGinley, both doct ...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 ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- SA’s 2025 automotive leather exports: Down on 2024, but still good, on the face of it
Figures from NAAMSA’s Automotive Trade Manual 2026 Automotive components – exports by product Component category 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 % of total export value Ran ...moreMobilising Africa’s human resource to reinvigorate the regional leather value chain
In last month’s edition I wrote about mobilising Africa’s livestock to reinvigorate the regional leather value chain, and this article is focussed on mobilising the human resource that is needed to make the most of the abundant livestock populations in the region.On Friday 12th June, newly organised SARLEN (Southern African Re ...moreImproving 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 ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- SA's first PPE conference draws top speakers
The Safety First Association and SAPEMA hosted SA’s first PPE conference in March, cramming 20 papers into a 2-day event, which also featured a number of PPE supplier stands. Here, we carry edited versions of 7 of them to illustrate the diversity of the topics. We expect to carry more in the next edition.As several speakers pointed ...moreNew OHS regulations coming into force later this year mean PPE needs to be reviewed, too
In 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 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. ...more
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