German footwear entrepreneur Carl-August Seibel, 61 years old, intends on building a footwear manufacturing plant in Kenya, where he already is active with social and humanitarian activities through the Fly and Help Foundation. Seibel, president of the Federal industrial footwear and leather goods’ Association HDS/L and of the footwear museum in Hauenstein, is also ceo […]
Ethiopia and Nigeria came first. Now it is the turn of Zimbabwe and Egypt. Huajian Group holds on to its “Africa’s largest investor” title by initiation new development operations. During an interview with the Sunday News Business, Zimbabwe’s minister for industry and commerce (Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu) revealed that Huajian Group has 10 billion USD ready […]
Introduction: Milan is under siege. To besiege it is the “people of design” bouncing between Salone del Mobile at Fieramilano Rho and the cascade of events, presentations and installations at Fuorisalone. In this context, leather (and it is not just a way of saying) is literally everywhere, declined above all in “various and possible” ways, […]
Second part of the story of what (and it’s really a lot) we have been admiring in Milan, between Salone and Fuorisalone. Common denominator: leather. Used by many, transformed in a thousand ways, chosen and valued as a tool in projects, often characterised by a deep crossover of productive specialisations and brand identities. One case, […]
Leather and design at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, part three. Let’s start with a prize. This is what the Milanese event reserves for under 35 designers in the context of the Salone Satellite, the exhibition space dedicated to them during the fair. Well, this year the first prize went to a project that […]
The leather discarded by shoe factories in Marche becomes a carpet and a pillow. These are some of the accessories presented within Trame a project by eMOTIVI, a startup based in Civitanova Marche that makes furnishings with leather scraps. The company, which has been active for only a year, is made up of 6 people […]
“I have been vegetarian for 20 years, yet my company makes use of leather. In fact, no material is more sustainable than leather, which comes from scraps of food meat. Conversely, I do not want to make use of materials that derive from petroleum”. Such is the remark made by Ana Vasconcelos, vice-president of Portugal’s...
Bellroy, an Australian leather goods company, founded in 2010, made a few comments about their sustainable mission, while emphasizing they have been traditionally looking for “biodegradable or recyclable materials, even though we never ever found, for our products, any other material better than leather. In fact, it proves to be resistant, durable and flexible; in […]
Portugal’s action might further urge (at last) the European Commission to act faster towards the implementation of regulations about the use of the “leather” term. “In fact, Portugal is planning to put into effect a national law, offsetting the lack of guidelines set by the European Union, to make clear the use of the leather […]
Vans is the second most popular brand among youngsters in the United States of America. Just after Nike, it is going to become the “focus brand” of VF Corp, the group that owns the brand itself. In the meantime, the company keeps going hand in hand with rock and leather. According to the latest survey, […]
LVMH over LVMH. The largest luxury group in the world exceeds its own expectations by performing better then supposed by financial analysts and puts in writing the awareness that, at least for its 70 brands, the fear of a slowdown within the high-end goods’ market isn’t as realistic as it seemed, most of all in […]
More seasons, more accessories. Loro Piana’s parable can be summarized as follows: positioning itself as a very high-end brand supplying winter clothes allowed the brand to assert its status within the fashion system. Now that the brand (80% of which is owned by LVMH), has more universal goals, product and marketing strategies have become a […]
The French leather goods’ chain, strengthened by constantly increasing orders and demand, continues to stimulate the creation of professional training programs and jobs. CFA du Pays de Montbéliard, for example, is working on opening a “new and big school” for future leather goods’ craftsmen. “Lizaine’s laboratories”, should be the name of the future institute, according […]
Raymond Massaro, “le bottier du siècle”, died yesterday being 90 years old. Grandson of the founder of the maison Massaro, he was born in 1929 and, after obtaining his shoemaker diploma in 1947, he went to work in the family business, which he then took over in 1957. After creating the first elastic ballerina for […]
It is a challenge that develops on two levels. There is a first, local one, linked to the needs of development, both stylistic and regarding product, of the Portuguese tannery industry. And then there is an international level, which calls on leather as a whole to respond to the demands of green innovation and the […]
The joint effects of the persistent droughts and sudden floods have hit the Queensland’s region hard, causing an impoverishment of Australia’s livestock industry. Peter Rizzo, ceo of Australian Meat Processor Corporation, explained the situation while speaking to the Internal Affairs Commission of the country’s Senate. “The reports available to us show that the number of […]
Adidas takes the first (productive) steps in Cape Town. The German sportswear giant has collaborated with Shelflife, a South African company, to revisit an historic sneaker using local leather and wood. The project is particular in itself, but it is even more so if we consider that it is the first time that Adidas has […]
On Thursday afternoon, at the World Footwear Congress, which took place in Naples, they sent a “loud and clear” message about Italian leather sustainability, circularity and “top quality”. To begin with, Ana Maria Vasconcelos, owner of Belcinto, a well-known Portuguese leather manufacturing company, and vice-president of APICAPPS, pointed out: “Although I have been vegetarian for […]
The appointment with Expopele 2019, the event organised on April 11th and 12th by APIC (the Portuguese tanning association) at the Museu du Curtume in Alcanena, is approaching. During the two days in the Lusitanian capital of leather, the international players in the supply chain will be able to compare issues such as identity, styles […]
Brazilian leather business gets off on the wrong foot in 2019. In fact, in the first two months of the year, exports of raw hides and skins decreased, in terms of value, by 24.5%, compared to the same period of 2018. As for volumes, overall, from January to February Brazil exported 31.2 million square metres […]
