Young people will prefer leather alternatives - WGSN
29/09/2017
“Millennials are all about less is more, and as the generations get younger that will be more extreme,” Maria Errobidarte, trend consultant at WGSN, tells Footwearbiz.
“Young people are not that interested in leather because you can make leather alternatives that are just as good. One of the key messages in the future will be ‘it’s cool to care’, where it’s not cool to use animal-derived products.”
She added that it will not be a question of price, but of being ‘socially aware’. “As technology improves, people are going to start opting for what they see as a better option.
“Brands that want to be at the forefront will have to stop using leather and opt for new ways of doing leather, for instance pineapple leather. We’re seeing that as an opportunity in the market.”
‘Pineapple leather’ is a textile made from fibres extracted from pineapple leaves. To make one square metre of material 480 leaves are needed, or 16 pineapples.
While the leather industry turns a byproduct of the meat industry into a valuable material that would be otherwise incinerated or put into landfill, and is a sustainable product, it suffers from an “image problem” – particularly if faux leathers derived from fossil fuels which are more polluting in their manufacture are thought of as comparatively eco-friendly.
Footwearbiz’s publisher runs the Nothing to Hide website, which is a collection of essays about the leather industry, written with a view to dispel some of the myths surrounding leather as a material, its manufacture and carbon footprint.
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