It’s the middle-class market, not the rich, where the real money isAlthough I fully realise that luxury is a very important factor for the leather industry, I believe that we focus too much on this particular sector, and forget the day-to-day use of leather. There aren’t too many people who can afford a €100 000 bag, a &e ...more

Publicity has always been a very important trade tool and its use to sell products goes back ‘ages’. The use of publicity is becoming more and more important as people, the consumers, are not thinking anymore with their own heads, but follow what others, so-called self-promoted influencers, tell them how to behave, how to dres ...more

" 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 ...more

" You can’t help those who don’t help themselvesThe International Trade Centre in Geneva spent a large amount of money in order to analyse the leather value chain in Mongolia. An extensive value chain study was made from the raising of the animals up to the finished product. The ITC presented a strategy proposal to the Go ...more

"Bangladesh unravellingThe leather industry in Bangladesh is slowly, slowly disintegrating. Their tanneries in the Hemayelpur area, which is part of the Savar Industrial Complex, are suffering from a non-functional common effluent treatment plant, hence European importers and brands are avoiding buying from them. The only chance to e ...more

" Unwanted! I would like to share that on more than one occasion I have submitted my candidacy to assume a responsibility on the Board of Leather Naturally and/or the Leather Working Group. I never heard back from either. So, the first thing that comes to your mind is ‘what do you expect?’. Of course! Logical! My continuo ...more

Italian Finance police raided in Northern Italy a Chinese leather goods manufacturing laboratory, where they found unbelievably dire hygienic, living and labour conditions as well as a crew of illegal (Chinese) workers. The laboratory was found to be producing leather bags for one of the famous top fashion brands. The brand announced imme ...more

The leather industry is unfairly targeted by the green lobby, says Sam Setter, but the industry should do more to help itself."I mean, how stupid are we???!!! Various organisations that claim to represent the leather industry aim, in their words, to save the earth, forcing responsibilities upon this industry that it doesn’t hav ...more

The EU bureaucracy is often a pain in a certain place (just ask the European farmers) because its directives are often interfering with tradition at great loss for small enterprises, always favouring big (multinational) companies. This time the EU centred the bullseye with the Green Claim Directive, EUGCD, which if implemented, would be a ...more

As a new year gift, Sam Setter has again given us TWO pills for this issue.I am flabbergasted to read in the November newsletter of Leather Naturally that it is ‘difficult due to global unrest and tension to remain mindful of the important role that we can play in helping to preserve our planet’, and ‘our minds here at L ...more

Let me stick to the subject of sustainability, which by now is the magic word in every industry. So, everything that you produce must be ‘sustainable’, whatever that means, otherwise the big brands and distribution chains, famous shops, etc., will not buy your products anymore. Since sustainability is interpreted as an environ ...more

On 13-16 June the fashion industry celebrated Pitti Uomo in Florence. The event was very well attended and the newspapers, as well as the city hall of Florence, heralded the attendance of so-called VIPs as a huge success. Indeed, people like Leonardo Di Caprio, Dua Lipa, George Clooney were among the visitors. They, like their peers, very ...more

Hastings, East Sussex, UK – Retired former editor of Leather International, Shelagh Davy, died on 17 April, aged 79.In an obituary in International Leather Maker, Martin Ricker, her successor at LI, now content director at ILM, wrote: “I succeeded Shelagh Davy as Editor of Leather International in 2009 after working for her on ...more