S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol91 No10 October 2025
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IN THIS ISSUE:
03 Upfront
- Mizuno: New distributor plans to increase marketing, and diversification of sports categories.
- Tifosi Sports: Moving on after On.
- Mixed messages from Deckers Brands’ results.
07 School Shoes
- The basic that must be comfortable, last for a long time, and cost very little. Palm Footwear’s Rajeev Pattundeen explains how.
10 Insights by Tinashe Mandirahwe
- Are big shoe brands holding back better shoes?
- Skechers goes private amid rising tariffs.
14 Brand Protection
- In the first of a series, Strauss Daly Attorneys discusses protecting brands against imitations.
16 Noticeboard
- Appointment: BBF’s Ndlela Mazibuko will focus on customers.
- The Life of Brian: Back in the day: When overseas travel was a real trip. World class manufacturing was an eye-opener and a lesson, writes Brian Zyster.
- Obituary: Miles O’Brien, Sportshoe and Jordan Shoes – Some See the Crescent, He Saw the Whole of the Moon, by Nick Bryant.
21 Statistics
- Preliminary trade statistics August 2025
Advertisers in this Issue
Arena Trims (15), East Asian Import & Export (09), Freestyle Genuine Handcrafted Leather (02), Haesloop Agencies (17), Kaytex Belts (11), Leather Finishing Products (13), Palm Footwear/Trustees (OFC), Saddler Belts (06), SAFLEC (16), S&V Calendar (01), S&V Directory (10), Shotland Packaging (20), Vandan Engineering (05).
- Tifosi Sports: Moving on after On
Randburg, Gauteng, SA – Tifosi Sports “will be looking to establish a relationship with a meaningful international sports brand” when Swiss running shoe brand On moves to a new distributor in January, CEO Nick Zografos said last week. “We’re in discussions with a number of them.”Tifosi Sports has repres ...moreMixed messages from Deckers Brands results
Goleta, California, USA (23 October 2025) – Hoka grew by 11.1% to US$634.1 million and Ugg grew by 10.1% to $759.6 million in Deckers Brands’ second fiscal quarter ended 30 September, the company announced.Sales of its ‘other brands’, now mainly Teva and Ahnu following the phase-out of its Koolaburra operations, de ...moreThe basic that must be comfortable, last for a long time, and cost very little
This is the peak season for retailers to stock school shoes, the unglamorous staple which underpins so much of the SA footwear industry. Palm Footwear is one of the most successful school shoe suppliers, and here MD Rajeev Pattundeen answers our questions about what consumers expect and retailers need from this category, and what the future holds. ...moreSkechers goes private amid rising tariffs
As U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports climb to 125%, Skechers is stepping away from public markets to rethink its strategy. ...moreBBF’s Ndlela Mazibuko: Focusing on customers
Pinetown, KZN, SA – BBF Safety Group has appointed Ndlela Mazibuko as MD, effective 1 November 2025. He will work alongside the BBF Safety Group CEO, Brian Kuhnert, and the Beier Group CEO, Warren Sachs, in growing the customer centric focus of the business.In a release, BBF wrote:A seasoned industrialist and inclusive leader, Ndle ...moreObituary: Miles O’Brien – Sportshoe, Jordan Shoes (08/02/1950-26/10/2025) Some See the Crescent, He Saw the Whole of the Moon
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Miles O’Brien went to Progress College in Rondebosch and studied marketing at Cape Technikon. His first job was at Standard Bank in Plumstead for a short period of time, then onto the City Tramways for 10 years.Sportshoe was owned by Benny Stoltzman (who also owned Vogue Shoes) who had the agency for A ...moreMizuno: New distributor plans increase in marketing, and diversification of sports categoriesJohannesburg, Gauteng, SA – Digital Wellness has been appointed by Mizuno Europe as the new Mizuno Footwear distributor for Southern Africa.It was previously distributed by Performance Endurance Solutions.Brian Kerby will continue with the brand, filling the role of Mizuno Brand Manager. He and Digital Wellness MD Ricky West respond ...moreAre big shoe brands holding back better shoes?On the 28 June 2025 episode of The Energy Blueprint Podcast, Xero Shoes co-founder Steven Sashen made a striking claim: a major sports brand secretly tested a more natural shoe that cut injury rates by half compared to their top-selling model — and then shelved it.A more natural shoe, as Sashen describes, is desi ...moreKnock out the knockoffs: Protecting your brand against imitationsCounterfeiting is no longer confined to imitation designer goods sold in back-alley markets. It has become a widespread and organised trade that threatens fair competition and the rights of legitimate businesses. At its simplest, counterfeiting means the deliberate manufacture and sale of goods calculated to resemble genuine branded produ ...moreWorld class manufacturing was an eye-opener and a lessonThis is my last contribution to this series of events. I have thoroughly enjoyed stepping back into the days when travelling to find new designs was real travel.My final contribution is to say that with all that happened there were a lot of positives also achieved. I managed to visit some international manufacturing facilit ...moreFootwear Industry Articles
- Duty evasion, false country of origin and labelling main targets: NCC and SARS ‘sign MoU to strengthen compliance’Media statement issued jointly by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) and SA Revenue Service (SARS)Pretoria, Gauteng, SA (06 May 2026) – The National Consumer Commission (NCC) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance consumer protection against the proliferation of ...more‘Footwear and leather goods sectors show united front at R-CTFL Masterplan review’
The R-CTFL Masterplan is currently under review, and a strategic planning session was recently convened with all key stakeholders and representatives present.The footwear and leather contingent participated fully in the session. Representatives from the dtic’s Footwear and Leather sector desk, SAFLEC, SAFLIA, and organised labour, i ...moreVermont sale completedJohannesburg, Gauteng, SA – After 39 years, former owner Mandy Owen has sold her shares in Vermont Leathercraft Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd to Creek Lab (Pty) Ltd, and officially handed over the business to Prashant Bhaga.In a message on LinkedIn, she wrote: “I would like to thank my husband, Graham, for his invaluable contributio ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- LEATHER’S ELEMENTARY UNIT
Geoff Attenburrow’s PhD student David M. Wright worked on the behaviour of leather under strain (Attenburrow, 1993; Wright, 1996). They were the first to describe that leather had a “co-operating unit”, a set of structures within leather that helped the leather to resist breaking and to resist deformation at low strain.T ...moreSARLEN: Defining what needs to be doneThe SARLEN webinar on 12 June 2026 featured 3 main speakers. The entire presentation can be seen here: : https://drive.google.com/file/d/14xBkPMTqsln-YuqkCXsm_vsazDwNqL83/view?usp=sharing ...moreSam Setter's 'Pills': Over and AgainThe EU announced that hides and skins could be removed from the EUDR directive's deforestation commodities. Could! Last month, like many others, I thought that the decision had been taken, but that doesn’t seem to be correct. The final decision will be taken after public feedback. Yeah, you read this right: after public feedback. As ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- The legal ramifications: PPE and the law: Ignore at your peril?
There’s no shortage of legislation covering employee safety in South Africa, but as in so much else, the enforcement is poor.In terms of our laws, the death of an employee (or anyone else) in a work situation, caused by negligence, is treated as culpable homicide. An injury caused by negligence is also a criminal act – that, b ...moreUnderstanding local and international PPE standards: Clarity in a complex landscape
Appearances and claims to the contrary, South Africa’s PPE industry “is largely unregulated, and a high percentage of PPE on the market is not compliant with official standards”, uvex Safety SA MD Christo Nel said, “and that’s a problem at many levels, and for the entire value chain”.He said the fundame ...moreBiodegradable disposable gloves ‘a growing trend’ in PPE
The poster is available to download in English in both PNG and PDF formats hereCompostable and biodegradable PPE are said to be rapidly growing trends internationally, lead by brands like Showa and HaPPE Earth.The nova-Institut für politische und ökologische Innovation GmbH in Hürth, Germany, has published an updated versio ...more
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