The socks model, a sports shoe with soft fabric upper, will soon be no longer fashionable: Jon Clark, chief executive officer of PrimeAsia leather tanning group, is quite sure about that. As reported by LeatherBiz portal, he made it public at the latest APLF edition, during an open meeting with Yves Morin, formerly president of CTC and UITIC. The French specialist had just emphasized that brands were to be accountable for the downturn in sales of leather footwear: in his opinion, such brands, who aim to meet Millennials’ continuous demand for sneakers, opt for alternative materials. According to Clark, whose company may boast, on Twitter, of supplying leather for the fabulous sneaker shoes worn by Spike Lee at the Academy Awards ceremony, this is not an intentional choice made by brands (“as a matter of fact, only few consumers reject leather for ethical reasons”, he cleared up), but simply a matter of style trends. Such trends are notoriously rather fleeting, while going after very tight fashion seasons. That is why PrimeAsia chief executive officer, who recently inaugurated a Vietnamese tannery, renovated with Italian machinery, may well say that fabric sports shoes will soon be no longer fashionable. Nike and Adidas, for whom they already manufacture 110 million square feet of leather a year (that is, 10.2 million square metres), have been raising their orders.
Sneakers keep booming, not socks model though – points out the CEO of PrimeAsia, which make leather for Spike Lee
