Monthly Archives: July 2016

The year of leather – automotive, high quality and sustainable

This year’s leather news state perhaps and upcoming revolution in leather market due to the tanneries switching from shoe leather production to automotive or upholstery skins. In Italy the boutique Santa Croce is doing way worse than Arzignano market. Santa Croce for many years was involved mainly in footwear – in contrast to North of Italy which specializes mostly on automotive manufacturers. Santa Croce is a place on the leather market well-known for producing materials of best quality for famous brands like Armani, Prada, or Gucci. However the top fashion brands are not able to feed all tanneries and companies selling leather of medium or low-end quality produce their goods in China or Middle East. This is why some manufacturers choose to produce automotive leather and if the will keep doing it, we may have to encounter another fluctuation and as a result the prices for automotive materials may go very low.

As results from the up to date leather news, brands like Nike, Timberland or H&M demand more certificated than ever. Especially popular is nowadays the LWG, because it provides guarantee to the brand, lower production cost and more opportunities for the tannery at the same time. It seems 2016 is a good moment to start using ecological products as sustainable and ecological materials begin to show.

Many companies are browsing leather market in search for better quality. And though they are willing to pay for it, there seem to be not enough material and the quality worsen each year more. Best leather start to become a niche product globally. China is on the leather news now as the stock market and the economy began to decline. And it influences the whole business – many orders from Asia dropped or got cancelled in 2015. Many tanneries in China are being moved and spread to various parts of the country due to ecology issues. However automotive leather has gone up in 2015 and Chinese shoe manufacturers start asking about materials of better quality, so let us hope for the best.