Researchers at the UK’s De Montfort University Leicester have worked with the British Footwear Association (BFA) to help the shoe industry understand how the coronavirus behaves on leather. 

The aim was to discover how long the virus could remain on the material and throughout the manufacturing process, following concerns workers could catch the virus handling shoes.

The team, led by DMU microbiologist Dr Katie Laird and virologist Dr Maitreyi Shivkumar, looked at how the virus survived on different types of shoe leather and cross-contamination on surfaces such as stainless steel (used in sewing machines) and cardboard to assess transfer from shoes in a shoe box. 

This study used a human coronavirus OC43, which has a similar survival pattern to that of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. 

They found OC43 was able to survive on some leathers for up to 48 hours and could be transmitted to shoe boxes and stainless steel surfaces during the manufacturing process. 

Dr Shivkumar said: “Although the coronavirus can remain infectious on some leathers for one or two days, the risk of transfer is greatest for up to a few hours after contamination of the leather.” 

When leather was treated with Micro-Fresh, an antiviral coating made by a UK-based company of the same name, it took the survival time of coronavirus from 24-48 hours to two hours.

Lucy Reece Raybould, CEO of the BFA, said: "I am pleased that this study has found some concrete information for the footwear industry that can now be transformed into actionable guidance to boost consumer confidence and give customers greater peace of mind, whether they are browsing, trying on or taking their goods home. 

“Similarly, the findings are vitally important for manufacturers across the BFA network, and I hope to see businesses critically assessing their processes to see if any improvements can be made.”

Photo by Aleks Marinkovic on Unsplash

Read an indepth look at this topic in our features section, in an article from INESCOP

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