COTANCE walks away after group goes for fast fashion’s idea of durability
11/04/2025
For more than a year, COTANCE has been an active member of the technical secretariat that is working to establish category rules for calculating the environmental of footwear and apparel products.
As part of the group, it argued that the technical secretariat’s proposed parameters for describing footwear products as durable were far too lax and that this was to the detriment of the leather industry.
Suggestions are that the technical secretariat is seeking to present as “long-lasting” any shoe that can withstand just 100 wears. This has caused alarm in the leather footwear sector because leather shoes can often last for thousands of wears. These shoes’ genuine longevity is an important factor in convincing consumers that it is worth paying extra for leather.
Now COTANCE has said that, despite its efforts to present fact-based arguments in favour taking truly long-lasting materials into consideration, on which it worked with “a global coalition of natural material stakeholders”, the technical secretariat has refused to alter its position. As a result, COTANCE has formally announced its withdrawal from the group.
The apparel and footwear PEFCR is now almost certain to include wholly inadequate durability values. “They disproportionately impact slow-fashion products made with natural material such as leather, wool, and cotton,” COTANCE said, “ultimately encouraging brands to deselect them in favour of less sustainable alternatives.”
It asked for there to be no reference to COTANCE or its representatives on the updated PEFCR document so that no one viewing the document will think there is support from COTANCE for a methodology it does not endorse.
Secretary-general, Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, said COTANCE had joined the process in good faith to help build “a fair and science-based environmental framework for fashion”.
He added: “Instead, we’ve witnessed a system that punishes durable, natural materials like leather, exactly the kind of products the circular economy should be encouraging. We cannot stand behind a methodology that promotes fast fashion over long-lasting quality.”
He said COTANCE remained committed to dialogue and hoped still to convince the European Commission to review this in a forthcoming revision of the PEFCR.
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