All millennials should have ‘heritage’ shoes
25/02/2019
In conversation with World Leather during the 2019 Simac-Tanning Tech exhibition, Mr Hurlow , leather industry manager for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for chemicals group Buckman, said he now sees major roadblocks in the way of leather reclaiming any of the recently lost ground in market segments such as casual shoes. Synthetic materials’ ability to integrate seamlessly with the automated production strategies many footwear brands now want to pursue gives them a big advantage over leather.
He expressed concerns about the automotive leather market too. High-end vehicles will continue to have leather upholstery, he said, but for many mainstream passenger cars, weight is becoming an increasingly important consideration for original equipment manufacturers.
Even a brief glance at the world of automotive shows that major groups, including General Motors and Honda, are making substantial changes to their production set-ups to accelerate development of electric vehicles. Mr Hurlow said a key focus for makers and drivers of electric vehicles is how far the car can run on one battery charge. “For this, every half kilo is crucial,” he said, adding that no matter how hard tanners and their suppliers try to reduce the weight of leather, there will always be synthetic materials that can offer a greater saving in weight.
Elton Hurlow’s preference would be for companies and individuals that care about the leather industry’s future to do more to present the properties that make leather unique in terms millennial consumers will find attractive. “No matter how many pairs of running shoes of different coloured knitted uppers they have in their wardrobes, we must convince these young people that they should also have at least one ‘heritage’ pair of shoes,” the Buckman executive said, “and we must explain to them why those shoes are desireable.”
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