International Leather Maker

If you are not aware of the European Union’s (EU) new laws on deforestation-free products, often referred to as EUDR, then you are remarkably out of touch. Worse, it may mean you have not bothered to join your national leather trade association, which will have been working hard on the subject and will have produced […]

A few days ago, many tanners were reflecting on a banner held up at the AGM of global athleisure brand Adidas which read “kangaroo leather is cruel”. This follows a trend in recent years of animal rights groups targeting Nike, Puma and even Prada over their use of kangaroo leather. The Australian Wild Game Industry Council (AWGIC) […]

In 1990, when Nelson Mandela said that “education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”, it was taken at face value as a universal truth, as was most of what he said. Since then, hundreds of millions have been pulled out of poverty around the world as access to education […]

A recent article published in the Journal of Geophysical Research has created consternation in a small part of the livestock and climate change war. The Guardian, which often writes negative pieces about the concept of livestock farming, rather curiously reported that a small herd of wild European buffalo in the Romanian area of the Carpathian […]

In the mid-1980s, I travelled to western China’s Gansu Province looking for hairsheep skins. China was not yet very open to foreigners and a minder was sent from Beijing to monitor our activities. Our local guide had been denied school by the Mao era, so learned English listening to the BBC World Service. We soon […]

Field, Fork and Fashion by Alice V Robinson is a deceptive book. It is thin, simply written and talks through the basics of the processes from the abattoir to finished leather products. Most tanners will have lots of experience of these processes so would anticipate that covering this ground again will be a simple proposition. […]

World Leather Day 2024, as seen across social media, was a big success and demonstrated how so many companies, organisations and individuals were enthusiastic to come together to honour the enduring and unique qualities of leather with a common language that would have been impossible only a decade ago. Steadily, we are starting to see […]

You would have thought it was a scene from one of the great football stadiums of the world, but the celebrations when the Glovers won their league (the sixth tier of the English football league system) felt equally grand, emotionally charged and significant at lowly Huish Park. This was Yeovil Town Football Club in Southwest […]

Our industry, like most of our trade magazines, is steeped in Western history and thinking, but the West is generally ageing and maintaining economies increasingly focused on services. The idea once was that this century would be the Pacific Century but somehow even that has stalled with major countries like China stumbling and Japan and South Korea also ageing […]

It is spring in the northern hemisphere and the cherry blossom has appeared on the tree in our garden. It was accompanied by the arrival of Storm Kathleen with high winds dedicated to destroying the blossom as fast as possible. Another unnamed storm has followed bringing rain and more wind to finish it off, and […]