Cordovan’s compact fibres allow tanners to produce leathers that can hold an exceptionally high shine. This makes it naturally appealing to high-end footwear brands. CREDIT: TRAVIS ON
02 Global News
Highlights from around the world of footwear. For news on shoes every day, go to footwearbiz.com, the best news website in the business.
04 Footprints
People making an impact on the industry: designers, industry leaders and famous footwear lovers.
06 Industry & Innovation
Details of innovations from suppliers and service providers across the globe.
08 Backtrack
Headlines from footwearbiz.com, summing up the most recent developments in the global footwear sector.
MATERIALS, MANUFACTURING & INNOVATION
10 Cordovan’s rich heritage
The history of and the processing techniques for this high-end leather add to its enduring appeal.
14 Eye on AI
What benefits will artificial intelligence bring to the factory floor? Inescop outlines some early examples.
Editor
Stephen Tierney
Deputy editor
Clare Grainger
Consultant editor
David Buirski
Contributors
Penny Leese
Sergio Dulio
Stuart Cleaver
Design
Tim Button
Global sales manager
Mat Abbott
Accounts
Lisa Fabian-Smith
Subscriptions manager
John Collins
Publisher & CEO
Simon Yarwood
16 Gripping story
Huntsman has circularity in mind with its latest soling range, complementing a liquid TPU for midsoles.
The craft of Cordovan Spray-on uppers
18 Spray-on layers
A robotic arm builds fine layers of midsole for On. The sportswear brand claims its ‘revolutionary’ process will enable nearshoring and faster speed to market.
ATHLETIC & OUTDOOR
BUSINESS OF FOOTWEAR
22 Ventile makes strides
The weaving technique behind the performance cotton fabric creates a strong natural material that is winning praise in the footwear sector.
ADVERTISER’S INDEX
27 Pooling knowledge
Seven big brands are working together on materials, traceability, design and data through a Fashion for Good-led initiative focused on circularity.
30 Skills boost
The European Confederation of the Footwear Industry (CEC) aims to encourage more young people into the industry through education – and games.
SALES OFFICES
Global sales: Mat Abbott T (+44) 151 3637600 E matthew@worldtrades.co.uk
India: S Sankaran E indianleather@yahoo.com
Mexico: Gennaro de la Garza E genarodelagarza@hotmail.com
Pakistan: Abdul Rab Siddiqi E arsidiqi@yahoo.com
World Trades Publishing 2024
Contributions: The editor welcomes news items, articles and photographs for consideration and possible publication but no responsibility can be accepted for the loss or non-publication of such material. Opinions expressed by individual contributors do not necessarily reflect the view of the editor or publisher.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy in reproduction, no responsibility can be accepted for the technical content or for claims made by manufacturers for product performance that are published. Publication in World Footwear cannot be construed as an endorsement for a claim or product by the publisher.
World Footwear is published 4 times per year by World Trades Publishing, The Old Stone House, Teeton, Northampton NN6 8LH, UK. Price UK £90, ROW £150 per year (four issues). Credit cards will be charged in GB Pounds converted at the daily bank rate. Your credit card company may charge you for this service. Graphic origination by WTP. Print by Bishops Printers, Walton Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 1TR, England. All rights reserved. ISSN 0894-3079.
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Global news
France Following the launch of spring-summer collections including technical clothing, mountain bikes and hiking footwear, ski brand Rossignol has continued its diversification strategy with the launch of its first trail-running collection. The brand said every millimetre of rocker, heel height and drop had been carefully thought-out, with feedback from an international panel of testers over a three-year period.
High-end footwear brand JM Weston has marked the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Paris by sharing a vintage photo of crowds outside its boutique on the city’s Champs-Élysées. Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, and crowds flocked into the streets of the French capital to celebrate. JM Weston said its store on the Champs-Élysées, one of the earliest shops to open on the famous avenue when it first opened its doors in 1932, was one of the places that “pulsed with the rhythm of liberation”.
The Netherlands London-based platform 1 Granary has teamed up with Ecco Leather to provide emerging designers with access to advanced leather workshops in the Netherlands. Beginning this autumn, designers such as Knwls, Johanna Parv, Duran Lantink, and Charlie Constantinou will collaborate closely with Ecco’s in-house research and design teams to explore innovative techniques in leather production. The resulting pieces from this partnership are set to be unveiled in March 2025.
Italy Athletic shoe brand On has opened its first retail store in Milan, expanding its presence in Europe. The 5,000-square-foot store, located on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, spans two levels and was designed by Studio Bbpr, retaining the building’s original style. The ground floor features On’s running collection, while the lower level offers fitness, tennis, and lifestyle products and serves as a community space. The store also includes a running club for local athletes.
Spain Spanish sports brand Joma has produced a special edition of its Slam shoes, designing them specifically for players of racket sport padel. A number of players on the P2 second-tier tournament on the global padel circuit have begun wearing the Slam footwear already. The shoes have a breathable mesh upper, with protective rubber on the heel and toe for durability. The midsole contains proprietary technology that Joma calls Dual Reactive and Reactive Ball for cushioning and energy return.
Pakistan Full-year export figures for Pakistan’s footwear and leather industry show total revenue of $850 million, down by 8% year on year. Pakistan’s financial year runs from July to June. For exports of footwear of all kinds, revenues for the recently closed financial year were $162 million, down by 9.2%. Chairman of the Pakistan Tanners’ Association (PTA), Muhammad Mehr Ali, said companies in Pakistan are due to receive around $9 million in tax rebates but that the government is withholding the money. He said some manufacturers had stopped production and that others were considering following suit.
The main leather industry bodies for China and for Pakistan formally signed a new memorandum of understanding. The ceremony took place at the All China Leather Exhibition, with the chairman of the China Leather Industry Association, Li Yuzhong, and his counterpart in the Pakistan Tanners’ Association, Muhammad Mehr Ali, signing the agreement.
China The city of Wenzhou in China’s Zhejiang province hosted the 2024 edition of the Wenzhou International Leather Fair, which ran from August 23-25. Since 2001, Wenzhou has enjoyed special status as China’s footwear capital. In 2020, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering opened a dedicated research institute for leather for use in the footwear sector in Wenzhou. There were almost 470 exhibitors in total this year. Halls one and two housed more than 230 suppliers of shoe materials.
The China Leather Industry Association (CLIA) has said it will launch a new event for finished product manufacturers in 2025. The new exhibition, Moda China International Shoes, Bags and Apparel Fashion Fair, will run concurrently with next year’s edition of the All China Leather Exhibition (ACLE) in Shanghai, with September 3-5 as the dates. Making the announcement at the first day of this year’s ACLE, the vice-chairman of CLIA, Chen Zhanguang, said: “This marks a significant milestone in the development of China’s leather industry.”
Key footwear enterprises in China brought in revenues of $36.5 billion, an increase of 6.9% year on year. Production of more than 1.3 billion pairs of leather shoes contributed to this. Manufacturers exported 250 million pairs of leather shoes over the period, bringing in almost $3.75 billion. These figures represent falls of 10.8% in volume and of 13.3% in value.
India French sports footwear, apparel and equipment retail group Decathlon has announced it will invest €100 million over the next five years to build up its retail and manufacturing network in India. Local media have reported that Decathlon expects to double its business in the country in the next three to five years. The group aims to open 10-15 new stores annually and increase local production to 85% by 2026, according to Reuters.
Japan Athletic footwear brand ASICS has launched a new shoe specifically for trail-running. The Metafuji trail shoe features a “trail-specific, full-length carbon plate, as well as high levels of cushioning and grip. The brand has positioned the carbon plate between two layers of foam to help stabilise it and ensure “energised forward propulsion without compromising on braking control on the downhill”. A lightweight woven mesh with high durability is the main material in the upper
Vietnam Vietnam has been confirmed as Nike’s largest producer of footwear and apparel for the second consecutive year. The report, which covers the period ending in May, shows that Vietnam produced approximately 50% of Nike’s global footwear and 28% of its apparel, solidifying its role as a critical manufacturing hub for the brand. Other significant contributors include China and Indonesia, which account for 27% and 18% of Nike’s footwear production, respectively.
Leather manufacturing group Sadesa has repeated its message that production will begin before the end of this year at a new facility it is building in Vietnam. Construction of the new tannery, located at the Phu My 3 industrial park, near Ho Chi Minh City, began in 2023. In mid-August, Sadesa said it was advancing with the project and that its teams were working every day to bring it to completion. The facility will produce 1.5 million square-feet of leather per month, specifically for the athletic footwear market.
Footprints
Former Adidas exec
to head Under Armour brand
Athletic footwear and apparel brand
Under Armour has acquired a start-up sportswear brand and appointed its founder to a senior role.
The Baltimore-based brand has snapped up Unless Collective, a plastic-free sportswear brand, and its founder, Eric Liedtke, who spent 26 years at adidas, occupying the position of brand president from 2014 to 2019. Terms of the deal were not released.
Mr Liedtke will now serve as Under Armour’s head of brand strategy, reporting to president and CEO, Kevin Plank. He will be in charge of the brand’s identity and storytelling, overseeing category marketing, consumer intelligence, social media and sports marketing, and will also continue to helm Unless.
“With Eric’s best-in-class history of driving exceptional growth in the branded sports industry and an established reputation as an exceptional leader, his experience will be a tremendous asset in galvanising Under Armour’s brand strategy, refining our operating model, and ensuring that every facet of consumer engagement is moving our brand forward,” commented Mr Plank.
Creative director appointment at Sergio Rossi
High-end footwear brand Sergio Rossi has appointed Paul Andrew as its new creative director.
Paul Andrew is the former creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo; he has also worked alongside Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Narciso Rodríguez and Alexander McQueen.
He first launched a footwear label of his own in 2012 and circled back to own-brand work after leaving Ferragamo in 2021.
In 2022 he created headlines when he said mushroom-based alternatives to leather that he had tried would not work in the type of shoes he wanted to make because they were not yet durable enough for footwear uppers.
He said he had carried out tests on the material but found that stretching it across a last was enough to tear it.
Turnaround to continue at Wolverine
Footwear group Wolverine Worldwide has reported revenues of $820.1 million for the first half of 2024.
Compared to the same period last year, this represents a decline in revenues of more than 30%.
Chief executive, Chris Hufnagel, said the group would continue “to execute our ambitious turnaround plan”. He said he and his team had been taking “fast and bold actions to build a new and better company” for a year.
In that time, he said Wolverine Worldwide had succeeded in lowering debt and inventory levels.
Brand founder loses cancer battle
Sports and mountain footwear brand Oboz has announced that the company’s founder, John Connelly, has died following a lengthy battle with cancer.
Mr Connelly founded Oboz in 2007 and continued to run it for a time after Kathmandu acquired the brand in 2018. He later handed control to current company president, Amy Beck
In a tribute, Ms Beck said: “John was a visionary, the ultimate non-conformist and a forever optimist. He will always be a part of Oboz.”
Minister pushes for footwear job increases
India’s minister for commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, has said the country’s footwear and leather industry could increase employment with the number of jobs these sectors support directly rising from 4 million to 10 million.
Speaking at the eighth India International Footwear Fair in New Delhi, Mr Goyal noted the sector’s potential for domestic and international expansion, urging the industry to embrace change and quality improvement.
He discussed the implementation of quality control orders (QCOs) to curb low-cost imports and protect the Indian industry. He also announced that retailers will have two years to clear existing stock under new regulations, with certain fashion footwear exempted.
Mr Goyal expressed confidence in India’s potential to lead the global footwear market.
Vietnam honour for OrthoLite
Human resources professionals publication HR Asia has named open-cell foam technology provider OrthoLite as one of the best employers in Vietnam.
Before being named as one of the winners at an event in Ho Chi Minh City on August 8, OrthoLite Vietnam went through detailed
Queen of hurdling hailed by New Balance
Athletic footwear brand New Balance was quick to acclaim Olympic 400 metres hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone when she successfully defended her title in Paris in August.
In the course of winning the gold medal, the athlete broke the world record for the event for the sixth time, clocking a time of 50:37, cementing her reputation as the queen of hurdling.
“Long may she reign,” New Balance said on social media immediately afterwards.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone runs in shoes designed especially for her, New Balance’s Syd Collection FuelCell SuperComp MD-X v3.
New CEO appointment at Kate Spade
Tapestry, the parent company of Coach, Stuart Weitzman, and Kate Spade, has appointed Eva Erdmann as CEO and Brand President of Kate Spade, effective October. Ms Erdmann will succeed Liz Fraser, who leaves in September, and will report to Tapestry CEO Joanne Crevoiserat while joining the Executive Committee.
Ms Erdmann joins from L’Oréal, where she was Global President of Urban Decay Cosmetics. Her tenure there saw significant brand transformation and revenue growth. In her new role, Ms Erdmann will focus on innovation and global growth for Kate Spade.
Joanne Crevoiserat expressed confidence in Ms Erdmann’s ability to drive growth and thanked Liz Fraser for her leadership. Erdmann stated she is honoured to join Kate Spade and looks forward to advancing its mission and driving profitable growth.
Negative influence of Higg
The president of the Leather and Hide Council of America, Kerry Brozyna, has said sourcing tool the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI) is partly to blame for the current low demand for leather. Speaking at the Tanning Industry Leadership Summit in Shanghai in early September, Mr Brozyna said that the leather industry has been struggling since the covid-19 pandemic because of low demand. He added that inaccurate figures the Higg MSI published in 2020 for leather’s carbon footprint had unfairly affected consumer attitudes towards leather.
In spite of a steady and substantial fall in hide prices over a number of years now, low consumer demand for leather means there has, as yet, been no turnaround in the industry’s fortunes.
“There are many factors,” Mr Brozyna said at the summit, “but the Higg has definitely contributed to this.”
He pointed out that there is low consumer understanding of where leather comes from and how tanners make it.
This has resulted in an increase in the use of synthetic alternatives.
“Synthetics are eating our lunch,” the LHCA president said. “They are cheap, available and falsely presented as being better for the environment than leather.”
assessment against comprehensive criteria, including an online survey and interviews with leaders of the business.
OrthoLite’s founder and chief executive, Glenn Barrett, said: “We are incredibly proud of our entire team in Vietnam. We believe the best way to deliver the highest-quality insoles and footwear materials solutions is with an engaged and solution-oriented team who have the tools they need to thrive.”
The company employs more than 1,000 people in Vietnam at a factory with high levels of automation as well as energy from solar panels.
Lolë acquires Sanuk for expansion
Lolë Brands has announced the acquisition of Sanuk, an outdoor lifestyle footwear brand previously owned by Deckers Brands. The acquisition marks a significant expansion for Lolë as it integrates Sanuk, known for its distinctive style and loyal customer base, into its portfolio.
Following the acquisition, Katie Pruitt has been appointed as vice president and general manager of Sanuk. Ms Pruitt, who brings over 20 years of industry experience and has been with Sanuk for more than a decade, will focus on refining the brand’s strategy. Her priorities will include enhancing the brand’s direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels to drive growth and innovation.
Sanuk, which was founded in 1997 within the surfing, action sports, and outdoor community, will relocate its operations to a new office in Los Angeles, California, in the coming months. Under Lolë's ownership, Sanuk is expected to receive increased investment aimed at strengthening its market position through unique, consumer-focused products and differentiated marketing strategies.
Seventy-fifth birthday
Sports brand adidas has celebrated its seventy-fifth birthday. Founder, Adi Dassler launched the company in August, 1949. This followed a split with his brother Rudolf, who went on to set up Puma.
Industry & Innovation
The BASF site in Ludwigshafen.
BASF PU production decision
Chemicals group BASF has announced that it will cease production of adipic acid and cyclododecanone at its Ludwigshafen plant in Germany. It said approximately 180 members of staff will be affected by the decision. Both products are building blocks in the manufacture of synthetic fibres. Adipic acid is used to make polyamides and polyurethane. Cyclododecanone is used to produce lauryl lactam for use in the manufacture of polyamide 12. BASF made it clear that it will continue to make both products at other sites.
Insole innovation
Performance foam manufacturer Dahsheng Chemical (DSC) chose the recent North West Materials show in Portland at the end of August as the platform for introducing its latest innovation, Dreamcell RCP AER 23C.
It described the product as a performance insole that is breathable and water resistant.
DSC will also put the product on display at the North East Materials Show in Boston on September 4 and 5, and will do the same at Lineapelle in Milan from September 17 to 19.
Chief operating officer, Mei-fen Wei, explained that DSC had created a new foam formulation for the Dreamcell RCP AER 23C, using proprietary technology to enhance surface micro-pores, boosting airflow to increase breathability and comfort, while resisting moisture penetration. The Taiwan-based company also said it generates “nearly zero waste” in the production of the new insole, in keeping with its commitment to sustainability.
Insulation with a quarter of the weight
A Beijing-based company, MatrixTech Technologies, has developed a new thermal insulation material that it claims can provide the same insulation effect as leading brands, but with a quarter of the weight.
The material, Y-Warm, has undergone testing by SATRA, the manufacturer has said, and provides high levels of moisture permeability, quick-drying and antimicrobial properties in addition to the weight advantage.
Chief technology officer of MatrixTech, Feipeng Zhong, has said Y-Warm has already been successfully applied in garments and gloves in China and that the material will start going into footwear this coming winter.
Digital product passports
UK footwear brand Loake has partnered with Buyerdock to introduce digital product passports (DPP) across its entire range.
In preparation for new EU regulations, aimed at improving product transparency and sustainability, these regulations will require companies to provide detailed information on the origin, materials, and environmental impact of their products. Loake’s DPPs will include this information, accessible via QR codes on each item.
By 2026, the EU mandates that every textile product sold within its borders must possess such a passport, accessible via a scannable QR code, NFC chip, or tag.
Ian Smith, Loake’s Sustainability Manager, stated: “This initiative aligns with our values of quality, craftsmanship, and transparency, and we believe it will enhance the customer experience while ensuring we remain compliant with EU regulations.”
Milspeed and Tecno Gi form partnership
UK-based shoe components manufacturer Milspeed has announced a partnership with Tecno Gi Group, a global leader in footwear and leather goods reinforcements. The collaboration has resulted in the formation of Milspeed International Ltd, aimed at advancing sustainable innovation in the footwear components and leather goods industries.
The partnership will utilise Tecno Gi's extrusion expertise to enhance production efficiency, enabling the more efficient manufacture of thicker counter products, faster production times, reduced waste, and lower costs through improved supply chain purchase power. The expanded global network of both companies will increase worldwide presence and distribution, providing greater technical sales support, faster communication, and regional manufacturing capabilities in Asia and Europe.
Special shoe is biobased and recyclable
Polymer producer Arkema had a shoe from On Running on display at its stand at Intertextile Shanghai at the end of the August.
Global textile platform manager, Echo Xun (pictured here with the shoe), explained that the white running shoe was the result of a partnership between Arkema and the Swiss athletic shoe brand. It was made entirely from Arkema’s biobased P11 polymer, which derives from castor beans, processed into yarn by a partner company.
“We use different processes for the different components, but it’s the same material throughout,” Ms Xun said. “It is also recyclable. Customers can bring worn shoes back and we can recycle the material to make components for new shoes.”
Yulex updates natural rubber material with added stretch
US-based Yulex has launched a high-performance natural rubber material that has been updated with an increased degree of stretch.
Yulex2.0 is the result of years of R&D, said the company. As well as targeting the footwear market, applications include wetsuits, sportswear, sports equipment and accessories.
Founder, Jeff Martin, said: “We saw a huge opportunity to increase the performance properties of our Yulex natural rubber, and Yulex2.0 delivers with increased elasticity and stretch. Our new supply chains provide full access to our new Yulex2.0 foams.”
Project Blank, a surf company from Australia, was an early adopter of Yulex2.0. Its founder, Mitch Avakian, said: “Working in partnership with Yulex, we committed to switching our wetsuit production away from limestone neoprene to a renewable alternative. In our opinion the current Yulex construction is comparable in performance and warmer than traditional neoprene wetsuits.”
In addition, the company is in the final stage of bringing to market Yulastic, a new material that aims to replace spandex in stretch denim, elastics and socks. Yulex CEO Liz Bui said: “Replacing neoprene with Yulex natural rubber has been the company’s focus for the past eight years, and then we saw a need for a spandex replacement, so now we are excited to launch our Yulastic filaments later this year.”
Yulex was first adopted by Patagonia seeking an alternative to neoprene for its wetsuits in 2013, and its products are used by more than 50 brands.
Combining the expertise of both companies will also create a broader product range to support diverse customer production requirements.
Milspeed International Ltd is committed to sustainability, incorporating recycled and bio-materials and developing products and processes with lower CO2 emissions. Efficient extrusion processes are expected to achieve record-low CO2 emissions, supporting customers’ sustainability goals.
Asics to roll-out 3D printed insoles 3D printing technology provider LuxCreo has expanded its partnership with footwear brand Asics to offer personalised 3D printed shoes and insoles to more customers.
LuxCreo 3D Printing Smart Factory is part of Asics’ Personalisation Studio, which also uses Dassault Systèmes’ technology, to scan, design and print. The companies offered the service to athletes in Paris at the Olympics.
Genki Hatano, lead researcher in the green manufacturing research team at Asics Institute of Sport Science, said: “Our research with athletes shows they feel the value of personalised footbeds. This has inspired us to consider making personalised footwear accessible to all.”
One hundred up
Brazil’s environmental, social and governance certification for companies in the footwear production chain, Origem Sustentável (Sustainable Origin), has celebrated an important milestone, with 100 companies now participating. This milestone means it covers half of national footwear production, which totals 870 million pairs.
A recent Abicalçados survey revealed that 88% of companies reuse, recycle or process waste; 68% of companies verify their suppliers for legal, environmental and social compliance; 67% use 100% renewable energy and 59% have at least one line of sustainable products. Haroldo Ferreira, CEO of Abicalçados, said Sustainable Origin helps companies stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
Backtrack
04 September 2024
North Face debuts versatile
Offtrail sneakers
03 September 2024
Adidas releases first leather tennis shoe
02 September 2024
Record Q3 revenue for Birkenstock
23 August 2024
Coats Footwear to debut innovations at NW Show
22 August 2024
Salomon footwear powers Amer Sports’ growth
21 August 2024
On continues up 30% incline
Successful year for Tapestry in spite of Stuart Weitzman fall
20 August 2024
Seventy-fifth birthday celebration for adidas
New collection from Astral homes in on hemp
19 August 2024
Pace of international growth to accelerate for 361 Degrees
16 August 2024
Retail weakness brings Yue Yuen figures down
Nike halts Turkey online sales
15 August 2024
Huntsman teases new soling range
Bata India Q1 profit soars
13 August 2024
Stark warning from Assopellettieri president over Made in Italy
12 August 2024
La Sportiva highlights climbing at Paris Olympics
Capri Holdings reports decline, brands struggle
09 August 2024
Robust demand for Puma products, brand says
World Footwear’s publishing cycle and limitations on space make it impossible for us to run more than a carefully selected sample of news from across the industry. However, we publish hundreds more stories on www.footwearbiz.com. The site is updated every day with news from every continent and every part of the industry, making footwearbiz.com one of the most comprehensive archives of news anywhere on the web for the global footwear industry.
We list below just a few of the headlines that have appeared on the site in recent weeks — www.footwearbiz.com allows you to read the news items you may have missed.
08 August 2024
Allbirds reports Q2 sales decline
07 August 2024
Low-impact, high-performance, scalable materials are in short supply
Footwear is ‘ripe for disruption’, innovation hub claims
06 August 2024
Dr Martens steps into softness
Rewriting of the classics continues at Puma
05 August 2024
Tough first six months for Columbia
Sportswear footwear sales
Ferragamo operating income drops 41% in Q2
02 August 2024
Emerging designers named for next edition of Micam
01 August 2024
Football successes boost adidas
Ecco: Clear potential for leatherwaste fibre
30 July 2024
Birkenstock kickstarts fresh European expansion
29 July 2024
Ugg sales boost Deckers’ strong quarter
26 July 2024
Further expansion in the US for JD Sports
25 July 2024
New CMO appointment at Kizik
Allbirds strengthens design team with outdoor heavyweights
24 Jul y 2024
Red Sea disruption continues into third quarter, Maersk confirms State to boost Calcutta Leather Complex
23 July 2024
Basketball deal for New Balance
Veja appoints new EMEA sales director
22 July 2024
Footwear fabric supplier to expand its use of PFAS-free Empel
H1 results bring Stella pledge to increase capacity in Bangladesh
19 July 2024
Better second quarter than expected for adidas
Growth and distribution celebrated in the French leather industry
18 July 2024
Italian companies keep Korean market in focus
On claims spray-on uppers are revolutionary
17 July 2024
French shoe brands should learn from Italy, entrepreneur says Skechers files lawsuit against LL Bean
16 July 2024
Version five of Ultraboost offers runners higher energy-return
Asics boosts forecast after strong results
15 July 2024
Decathlon launches ‘start-up studio’ Vietnam-Italy boost footwear industry collaboration
The timeless craft of Cordovan leather
The term "cordovan" originates from the Spanish city of Córdoba, renowned since the 10th century for its superior leather production. Artisans in Córdoba developed a notable tanning method that employed vegetable tannins and specialised techniques to create extremely durable and flexible leather. Among their most notable innovations was the Guadameci technique, which involved elaborate embossing, gilding, and painting on sheep, goat, or calfskins, producing beautifully decorated panels.
Despite scant historical evidence that the Visigoths or Moors specifically tanned what we now call shell cordovan, the term "cordovan leather" has long been synonymous with unparalleled quality and meticulous craftsmanship. This reputation was so well established that it prompted King Henry III to issue ordinances in 1272. These regulations mandated that Cordwainers — shoemakers in London — must use only the finest 'cordwain', a term for high-quality goatskin leather from Córdoba. The ordinances also differentiated between shoemakers and cobblers, stipulating that new shoes should be crafted from new leather, while old leather was reserved solely for repairs.
Interestingly, cordovan leather was not initially produced with footwear in mind. Its uses were more industrial, including saddlery, armour, and notably, strops — leather straps designed to hone razor blades. The rise of safety razors and disposable
Cordovan leather, often known as "shell cordovan", is celebrated for its exceptional quality and unique craftsmanship, boasting a history that stretches back centuries. The story of this valued material is as rich and intricate as the leather itself.
blades eventually diminished the demand for cordovan in this application, yet the leather’s allure and prestige endured.
As fashion-based outlets have proliferated and quality standards have tightened, only a few tanneries are now capable of full-scale cordovan production. Prominent producers include Horween in the United States and Shinki Hikaku in Japan. Other tanneries in Japan and Italy also manufacture cordovan, though many of these are primarily involved in finishing rather than the complete tanning process. Several tanneries have experimented with cordovan production but have generally moved away from it or limited their involvement to specific aspects of the process.
Shell cordovan is presented with the grain side of the leather unfinished.
CREDIT: HORWEEN
Today, cordovan leather continues to captivate artisans and enthusiasts alike, celebrated for its unmatched quality and timeless appeal. Its storied past and enduring craftsmanship make it a symbol of luxury and excellence in the world of footwear and leathergoods.
Cordovan production
Shell cordovan leather is distinct from other types of leather due to its unique origin. It is exclusively derived from specific areas of horse hides — two oval patches located on either side of the spine, on the rump. These patches, typically no larger than a few square feet each, are formed from a fibrous membrane that runs through the cross-section of the hide in this area.
Initially, these fibrous parts are nearly imperceptible. However, after the hair is removed and the hide is limed, these regions become more pronounced. At this point, tanners can either remove and process these fibrous sections separately or they may have already opted to treat the entire rump area through the full leathermaking process having removed it from the salt preserved hide.
Interestingly, too, the size of the shell cordovan is often linked to the age of the horse. Larger shells generally come from older, more mature horses. Consequently, unlike most hides traded in the leather industry, horse hides are often purchased with specific length requirements, reflecting the size of the animal. This precision ensures that the resulting leather meets the high standards expected of shell cordovan.
The tanning of cordovan leather, utilising traditional vegetable tanning methods, is notably slower compared to other similarly tanned leathers of equivalent thickness. This is due to the compact nature of the fibrous
membrane, which is crucial to cordovan's distinctive appearance and character. Unlike other leathers, cordovan is finished and presented from the flesh side, leaving the grain side, typically the finished side for most leathers, mostly untreated and in its natural state.
The process begins with precise splitting to reduce the thickness of the leather just enough to reach the fibrous shell. Subsequent controlled shaving fully reveals this unique layer. The exact methods employed by the few tanners who produce shell cordovan are closely guarded secrets, akin to the "secret sauce" of certain burger chains or the precise ingredients of Coca-Cola. These processes involve various oilings and stuffing — the application of harder waxes and fats at elevated temperatures — which lay the foundation for the leather's distinctive characteristics.
In cordovan leather production, what is not done is as crucial as to what is done. The ageing phase, where the leather is left to settle, allows tannins to fix and fats to migrate. This period, often spanning several weeks, might appear as a production standstill, but it is essential for developing the final product's quality. This deliberate, unhurried process ensures that cordovan leather achieves its renowned durability and luxurious finish.
Location of the cordovan shell is found in the rump of the horse hide, either side of the spine.
Horween cordovan shells being paste dried – in this process both shells are kept together.
CREDIT: HORWEEN
Meticulous attention to detail is required to reveal the shell membrane.
Perfect presentation
As mentioned, the finishing process of cordovan leather involves final colouring, oiling, and sealing on what is essentially the flesh side of the leather. In cordovan, the classic grain leather is effectively the reverse side. The exact finishing formulations are proprietary to each tannery, but they generally contain high wax content to achieve a high shine. This shine is often imparted using either ironing machines with highpressure mirror-like rollers or more traditionally, a glazing jack. The glazing jack, a machine with a reciprocating arm, strikes and drags a glass cylinder (the jack) across the surface, imparting a high gloss and further compacting the fibres.
One of the primary benefits of cordovan leather is its compact fibres. A leather that can hold a high shine offers obvious aesthetic benefits. Moreover, due to the intrinsic properties of the shell membrane, the leather exhibits minimal "break" when creased. This means that when the leather is folded, it forms fine creases rather than deep cracks. This property is highly desirable in footwear, as it ensures that creasing at the toe results in gentle rolls of the leather, displaying extremely fine lines.
Given these advantages, one might wonder why cordovan is not more commonly used in shoemaking. Several factors contribute to its limited use.
Challenges in working with Cordovan leather
Working with cordovan leather presents several challenges, as highlighted by Duncan Stuart of John Lobb, a bespoke shoemaker established in London in 1849 and now part of the Hermès group. Mr Stuart, who brings extensive experience from his previous roles in the shoe industry, notes that a primary difficulty is the shade variation, both between different shells and within the same shell, making it challenging to achieve a uniform
appearance. Another issue is the shrinking size of the shells, which complicates cutting larger designs like whole-cut shoes, requiring more intricate techniques. Whole-cut loafers and derby shoes, crafted from a single piece of leather, showcase cordovan's beauty with minimal distractions. Brogues also pair well with cordovan, benefiting from its ability to hold a polish and develop a patina over time, explains Mr Stuart.
Cordovan's high wax and oil content, while beneficial for durability, can sometimes seep through shoe linings, particularly in lined shoes, leading to a trend toward unlined styles. Additionally, the vegetable tanning process makes cordovan sensitive to heat, necessitating careful handling during manufacturing. Despite these challenges, the unique qualities of cordovan, such as its shade variations, luxurious feel, and durability, are what make it so desirable.
Caring for cordovan leather requires avoiding spiritbased cleaners, which can strip its natural oils. Instead, special cordovan cleaners should be used, along with a simple brush and water for routine cleaning. For a deeper polish, some enthusiasts use bones to achieve a high shine.
Shell requirements and tanneries
Typically, two cordovan shells are needed for a pair of shoes. Mr Stuart, drawing on his experience with various tanneries, notes that Horween is considered the gold standard for cordovan leather, known for its natural look and how well it absorbs waxes and polishes. In comparison, Italian and Japanese shells, though high quality, often appear shinier and less natural. Horween's reputation is significant, with customers often seeking out Horween-branded products as a mark of authenticity and quality, “Horween is to cordovan what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners”.
CREDIT: HORWEEN
What it means to be green
At Stanbee, we’ve built our name on innovation. Green innovation. We make it our mission to produce the lightest, thinnest, strongest, most resilient structural footwear materials in the industry. And we do it while cutting our reliance on raw materials—thus protecting the environment from unnecessary waste.
For example, all of our Nitro products are injected with a foaming system that displaces raw virgin materials, thereby reducing weight and improving performance.
Also, Nitro Force, our lightest, firmest heel counters, are madefrom at least 85% PET-recycled plastic bottles. Each pair of these counters reuses the recycled content of two one-time use PET water bottles. That helps offset the 500 billion plastic bottles tossed into the global waste stream every year at a rate of one million bottles per minute.
Now we’re offering three new Nitro products: Nitro Flex for unparalleled flexibility in a heel counter; Nitro Vulc forexceptional fit and comfort in vulcanized footwear; and Nitro Sport for high-performance toe boxes that are lighter,softer and more resilient—with increased recycled content.
All of these products are available in a zero-waste, net-product, closed-loop system.
So speak to your Stanbee representative today—or visit www.stanbee.com. Not only will you boost your product’s performance, you’ll be protecting the planet. That’s what it means to be green.
SoftManBot tracked the different movements and levels of force that workers use to extract footwear soles from moulds in order to help automate the task.
AI on its way into footwear factories
Talk about artificial intelligence (AI) may be all the rage but, beyond that, examples have now come to light of the technology in use on footwear factory floors, contributing to the shoe production process. These are early, tentative steps, but the industry’s transition towards becoming more automated and digitalised is definitely under way now.
Software and AI engineer Carlos Vélez is part of the robotics and automation team at Elda-based footwear research institute, Inescop. He used a speaker-slot at Calzatic, a recent conference in Elche, to share his thoughts on using AI in footwear production and to flag up some wins in this area that Inescop has been able to chalk up so far.
He took his own first steps into this subject matter around six years ago when he was completing his final project for a postgraduate degree devoted to AI. As part of this, he worked with a major retail group in Spain on a project to make shopping easier for customers with a visual impairment, designing an app to help them find their way round a store. Using AI-enabled sensors inside the store, the app was also able to help determine users’ locations so as to give them concrete instructions through a voice interface for making their way to the footwear department, the menswear department or wherever they wanted to go next. He points out that, if anyone should think this a small-scale project, it took place at a time when the world of business was even less familiar with AI than it is now. “This was in 2018,” he says. “No one had heard of ChatGPT.”
Research institution Inescop has shared details of some of the practical experience it has built up so far of using artificial intelligence in working shoe manufacturing facilities.
Shoe subtleties
All industries have their specific demands, but Mr Vélez’s opinion is that there are subtleties in footwear production, an industry that has traditionally been so reliant on the skill of manual workers, that make it particularly tricky to integrate artificial intelligence into its factory set-up. “My view is that you could almost talk about each shoe as a work of art,” he says, “and this is down to the skill and experience of the workers. You have to wrestle with a wide range of materials that can often seem the same at first glance. When you pick them up to work with them, though, you realise that there are often differences in the texture or in the exact colour.” With this, and with seasonal changes that still matter a great deal in footwear collections, shoe factories face constant change.
It is this constant change, he argues, that makes it difficult to apply large-scale automated systems to footwear production in a similar way to the use of those systems in, say, automotive or pharmaceuticals. He also
makes the point that the footwear manufacturing landscape is made up mostly of small- and medium-sized companies that are usually less able to take on big technological transitions. But he insists that it is important to try to face up to these challenges. The footwear sector should do this step by step and focusing on low-hanging fruit, he suggests, to help the industry keep functioning well as it confronts an even greater parallel challenge, that of recruiting new generations of shoe workers. “I know you don’t need me to tell you that,” Carlos Vélez said to the footwear manufacturers in the Calzatic audience. “But it means we are going to have to think about AI.”
Early harvest
In the work that Inescop has been able to do on this so far, low-hanging fruit has manifested itself as AI-enabled pliers. These were one of the results of a recent project called SoftManBot, which Inescop developed with a soling footwear manufacturer and a materials supplier in and around Elche, with financial support from the European Union. The specific context was the task of taking soles from moulds. “To do this, you have to use quite a lot of force, but you also need to be skilful,” the software engineer says. “I got to try it and I think it was immediately clear that I was using too much force and not enough skill. The result was soles that would break or end up out of shape.”
When he asked the experienced workers around him to explain exactly how they went about this part of the job, they were unable to. They said they could feel from the way the material responded to contact with the pliers what they needed to do next. The solution was to integrate movement-tracking sensors and LED lights into the pliers the workers use. All they had to do was remove the soles as normal, doing it exactly as they always had done, and as they did so, they programmed the robotic demoulding system. Trying to put the technology into the moulds would have been much trickier; the moulds are one of the aspects of footwear production that change with great frequency. AI applied to pliers attached to a robotic arm worked more effectively, combining software, hardware and AI together, with the AI supplying soft skills that we have been unable to achieve with technology up until now.
A helping hand
Inescop’s vision for AI is not that it should replace human workers in factories, but help them, Carlos Vélez explains. The aim with the system that emerged from the SoftManBot project is not to take people’s employment away, but to relieve them of repetitive and physically demanding aspects of their work, making their working lives less physically exhausting. When the injected soling materials cool down to the point at which the soles can be removed from the moulds and remain intact, workers have to apply plenty of force. The research institute has measured this effort as being equivalent to lifting, albeit briefly, a weight of between 20 and 30 kilos. The workers may not have to sustain that effort for long each time, but having to apply it every 40 seconds across an eighthour shift is physically demanding.
A second project for which he has high hopes has the same objective: using AI to automate the initial stages of
defect-detection systems in the factory. Its name is QRAIS. This can free up a quality-control manager from staring at images on a screen for an entire shift. Visual fatigue in that person can lead to problems going unnoticed until shoes reach shops or customers’ feet. The solution involves putting AI into the X-ray machines that many factories already use for quality control. The new system has the ability to detect a variety of potential problems, ranging from a pair of size 36 shoes having been packed into a box for size 30, to heel defects and even nails or staples presenting an injury-risk. If the system identifies any of these problems, it alerts the operative immediately so that a thorough visual check can take place. The technology has an easy starting point. The shoes in a pair should be mirror images of one another. AI can tell immediately if there is anything in one of the shoes that is not present in the other.
Physical demand
An early version of this system went into action in a local shoe factory in early 2024, with one of the benefits being that this exposure to the real world has enabled the technology to improve. It is gathering data all the time on what is and what is not a defect, making it better at flagging up genuine problems. A further important benefit of this adaptability is that, as the experienced workers in the factory either correct or affirm the system’s notifications, it is their way of working that the tool is learning and falling into line with. This means the technology is becoming increasingly personalised to suit their particular needs and demands.
Increasing the technological level required while alleviating some of the physical demand may be one way of attracting younger people into the industry and making sure recruits stay in the sector for longer. At the same time, AI can help footwear manufacturing companies digitalise the skills and knowledge that the current generation of workers has in abundance. “It is of fundamental importance to carry out that digitalisation effort and to start right away,” Carlos Vélez says. “If we don’t, the day will come when those workers retire and walk away from the industry taking that knowledge with them.”
The finished SoftManBot tool, combining software, hardware and AI.
Huntsman has engineered its Avalon Gecko TPU with various properties, including an extrudable grade for creating very thin outsoles and a product that can be foamed to produce a low density, soft material.
ALL CREDITS: HUNTSMAN
Getting a grip on circularity
Anticipating consumer trends and brands’ demands is a requisite for any supply chain company, and for advanced materials group Huntsman’s footwear sector team, helping customers to reach their circular ambitions has been the focus for its latest developments. With around 20 components in any one shoe, recycling footwear is extremely complex, with no easy or widespread solutions in place, and with incoming regulation putting the onus on sellers to take ownership of their waste and incorporate recycled or recyclable materials, brands will need to go back to the drawing board. Huntsman envisages this drawing board might feature mono-material shoes, or shoes containing fewer materials, that are simpler to break down and reconstruct, with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) being a versatile and multi-faceted option for various parts.
“The go-to outsole material in the footwear industry has traditionally been rubber, with its unique performance combination of durability and slip resistance,” Peter Chiang, a senior marketing manager for footwear at Huntsman, tells World Footwear. “This is particularly true in the sports segment. With the increased emphasis on recyclability, our team took the challenge to develop a TPU solution with circularity in mind that could compete with rubber. The goal was to achieve the delicate balance between slip performance, which is usually softer, and strong abrasion resistance, which tends to result in harder materials.”
Huntsman has set its sights on recyclability with a versatile TPU soling range complementing a socalled first liquid TPU for the footwear industry. It suggests the combination can simplify manufacturing and presents solutions for brands’ sustainability ambitions.
At the North West Materials Show in Oregon, US, at the end of August, Huntsman launched its Avalon Gecko TPU portfolio, a series of products for soling applications. Drawing inspiration from the extraordinary grip of geckos, products offer comparable slip performance to rubber in both wet and dry conditions, the company stated. To ensure design and production versatility, Huntsman developed three grades: Avalon 6044 AG, an opaque injectable grade that is ideal for safety shoes; Avalon 6053 AG, a transparent extrusion grade optimised for running applications; and Avalon 6055 AG, a transparent injectable grade for wet slip performance.
The extrudable Avalon 6053 AG TPU enables the creation of outsoles that are up to 50% thinner and lighter than conventional outsoles, while the injectable 6044 AG grade has been developed to offer fast cycle times for improved productivity. While there are industry standards for most of the test requirements, the team had to create a procedure to mimic abrasion at elevated temperatures as part of the research and development process, Mr Chiang tells us.
“The development of Avalon Gecko TPU represents a significant advancement towards achieving circular footwear,” says Matthew Canoy, global marketing director for PU elastomers at Huntsman. “Developed to be dependable, durable and with circularity in mind, these materials ensure that sustainability and high performance are in lock step with one another, with no compromises.”
Liquid asset
The Gecko portfolio has also been designed in “lock step” with Huntsman’s previous launch, which it claims is a first for the footwear sector: a liquid thermoplastic TPU, Smartlite O LTPU, for midsoles and outsoles. This development was several years in R&D, and was introduced to the market last autumn. Creating the midsole material in a liquid form rather than the traditional foam version can simplify manufacturing techniques, it said, as expanded forms of TPU often require complex procedures such as supercritical foaming and steam chest molding. The Smartlite O LTPU system can be processed in a single step, meaning it uses less water and energy and generates less waste and fewer carbon emissions.
Huntsman worked alongside Germany-based mold manufacturer Framas Group - which has capacity to produce up to two million soling constructions per year using the material – for the launch. In situ polymerisation and fast demold rates mean cycle times for the Smartlite O LTPU system are short, said the partners. “When it comes to liquid technologies, the big challenge has always been to develop the ideal combination of liquid processing while retaining the thermoplastic and high performing properties,” explains Craig Roberts, commercial manager for global brands at Huntsman.
While the Avalon Gecko can be processed on standard machinery which is configured to run with injection grade TPU, Smartlite O LTPU requires liquid processing machinery, which provides accurate control of component and mold temperatures. The fact that they are both TPU means they can in theory be broken down by chemical and mechanical recycling and used again. Another circular advantage of combining these products is that they can bond together without the use of traditional adhesives.
Ahead of the curve
From a performance and aesthetic perspective, making products with advanced durability furthers sustainability goals in terms of keeping the shoes in use for longer. Mr Chiang believes in the future, brands will strive for even lighter products to boost wearers’
The liquid TPU system, Smartlite O LTPU, delivers enhanced surface definition without silver lines or the popcorn effect, says Huntsman. It is also easy to colour and create striking fade effects.
performance, particularly in the running sector. “This could be achieved either through using lesser material substances, while maintaining performance, or eliminating components, by combining some functional materials,” he suggests. “In some segments, there is a convergence of requirements while still upholding the specifications. For example, the protective shoes segment is looking more towards lightweight and comfort, while leisure footwear is adopting the sports running look and feel.”
Earlier this year, the European Parliament agreed to extend producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, through which producers that sell textiles in the European Union will have to cover the costs for collecting, sorting and recycling them separately. Member states will have to establish these schemes 18 months after the directive comes into force; they cover footwear, as well as clothing and accessories.
Soling units featuring a Smartlite O LTPU midsole and a TPU outsole can be repurposed. For example, manufacturers can mix post-industrial recycled Smartlite O LTPU content with virgin TPU to create new outsoles and cupsoles. Huntsman has tested the use of recycled Smartlite O LTPU back into conventional injection grade TPU and confirmed that it can be used at a ratio of up to 50% to virgin TPU to produce a product with good properties. It can also make biobased versions of the material.
“Circularity is becoming more important, not just because of regulations but also consumer interest,” Mr Roberts adds. “In the future, there will be more pressure to stop sending footwear to landfill so infrastructure and processes will need to be put in place to enable reuse and/or recycling. Recycling in-factory waste is standard practice for TPU and proof of concept is in place for Smartlite O LTPU. The challenge is to put in place collection, sorting, segregation and eventually processes to enable recycling at end of life and to be able to scale up.”
Brand feedback from the new products has been “incredibly positive”, suggesting that the advancements are catching up to the desire, offering a tool for companies as a new era of regulation, as well as increasing customer awareness, drives material change.
Web of influence
AHalloween decoration is an unlikely source of inspiration for a new footwear manufacturing technique, but a plastic spider’s web – or more specifically, the way it was created – caught the eye of designer Johannes Voelchert from Swiss brand On. A video showing the fine layers of plastic being sprayed back and forth sparked an idea for a snug fitting upper – but how difficult would this be to replicate in a shoe, that needs to impart comfort, strength and durability?
The brand, which was launched in 2010 and includes tennis player Roger Federer among investors, describes itself as a “creator of industry-disrupting innovation in premium footwear, apparel and accessories”. It was founded by three friends and running enthusiasts searching for a feeling of “running on clouds”; all its shoes are based on its patented CloudTec foam, for which it won ISPO’s Brand New prize in 2010.
Its growth rate is extraordinary. At the time of its stock market listing in 2021, On had increased sales at an annual growth rate of 85% from the year of its founding, making it one of the fastest-growing athletic sports companies in the world. Since then, the trajectory has continued: this March, it reported 2023 sales of CHF 1.8 billion (£1.6 billion), an annual increase of 47%, particularly impressive at a time when big rivals are reporting flat or declining sales. It anticipates 30% growth this year. “The demand for the On brand remains very strong,” says co-CEO Martin Hoffmann. “Exciting product launches and big brand moments are in the making.”
Spray-on TPU
One of these ‘big brand moments’ is the announcement of the ‘sprayed’ shoe, which On claims is a “revolutionary” manufacturing process. Trials took place over four years at On Labs in Zurich, mastering a way to create the one-piece LightSpray uppers in a single step using an automated by a robotic arm, compared with traditional upper manufacturing involving yarn extrusion and finishing, weaving or knitting, sewing, glueing and assembling of parts.
An integrated thermal fusing technology allows the uppers to bond to the midsole without the need for glue, and the construction from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) presents opportunities for circular manufacture (in theory, it could be broken down and the TPU used again). The traditional pattern-making process is replaced with computational design and
Sportswear brand On has developed a novel way to create
uppers:
sprayed from a robotic arm in a matter of minutes.
robot programming, which allows for customisation and rapid prototyping. Once LightSpray uppers are created, branding is added via an automated ink-jet printing process. The upper can be sprayed in just three minutes, and the whole shoe assembled in three more.
“LightSpray marks a significant milestone for On, not only in creating high-performance products but also the potential it has to move us towards a more sustainable, circular future,” comments Marc Maurer, Co-CEO of On. “Our team is constantly challenging itself to rethink the status quo in terms of the design, development and manufacturing of performance sportswear.”
Close to home
Rather than using its traditional footwear manufacturers, which are mainly based in Vietnam, On is establishing a fully automated production unit in Zurich. The LightSpray upper of the Cloudboom Strike LS will be manufactured and the final shoe will be assembled there. The midsole features two layers of Helion HF hyper foam - On’s Pebax formula made with over 40% bio-based raw materials - providing impact absorption and high energy return. A preshaped, stiff carbon Speedboard, sandwiched between the foam, enables propulsion. Individual runners’ pressure map data will inform the outsole, for improved traction, while increasing the ground contact area. The CloudBoom Strike LS has been made with no sockliner, strobel or laces, helping it to be On’s lightest running shoe, weighing just 170g. The process results in minimal waste, and reduces an upper’s carbon emissions by 75% compared with other On racing shoes, according to the company.
The developments fit neatly into its portfolio of new launches that are helping it towards its targets of using only recycled polyester and nylon by end 2024 as well as only recycled, organic or “petrol-free” cotton. It has increased its subscription model, launched in 2020, to include Cyclon Cloudeasy running top made from
The Cloudboom Strike LS is On’s lightest running shoe. The upper weighs just 30g, while the entire shoe weighs 170g. The process is designed to facilitate nearshoring, with shoes made on demand and closer to consumers.
ALL CREDITS: ON
100% recycled PET, and the Cloudrise, made from a biobased nylon PA11 derived from castor bean oil. These developments drive the figures in On’s Impact Report. In 2023, there was a 30% decrease in emissions from owned operations, and a 17% emissions reduction across the entire supply chain compared with 2022. It also increased the use of recycled polyester in its products to 85%, and 80% recycled polyamide across its top selling styles.
In the race
At its heart though, the company wants to be viewed as a serious challenger in the high performance categories, shoeing marathon winners and sprinters, not merely as a sustainability-led or novelty-led brand. On athletes were closely involved in the design and testing of the spray-on Cloudboom Strike LS. Earlier this year, Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, four-time World Champion runner and winner of the marathons in Boston and New York City, wore a development version when she won the Marathon in Boston for the second year in a row.
At the Paris Olympics, On sponsored 65 athletes and clothed the Swiss team. Hopes were high for Ms Obiri, who was aiming for a gold in the women’s marathon, having achieved silver in the previous two Olympics. On the day, she was pipped to the gold and silver by Sifan Hassan of Netherlands and Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia, but still took the bronze medal with a time of 2:23:10 –
“ Our team is constantly challenging itself to rethink the status quo. ”
MARC MAURER, ON
demonstrating the spray-on shoe, with all its novelty, can still be taken seriously on the podium.
This summer, the automated production unit that makes LightSpray technology was taken on the road for live manufacturing demonstrations in Paris, with the hope of promoting the nearshoring idea that many brands have touted over the last few years, as advances in manufacturing enable quicker and more agile supply chains. Increased customisation, increased control, faster speed to market, trend driven, reduced waste and lower carbon footprint are all the calling cards of disrupting the shoe manufacturing space with technological advancements. At $330, the shoes are not cheap, so only time will tell if consumer demand is strong enough to support the model, but prices tend to fall as volumes rise. “LightSpray technology has the potential to revolutionise not only footwear but also all kinds of wearable products in the sportswear industry,” the company says – suggesting this is just the starting line for On’s next big event.
The ultra-thin LightSpray upper is precision-made for support, adaptable to the foot, seamless and lace-free, resulting in an exceptionally lightweight shoe.
Natural progression
Like their clothing counterparts, many footwear designers and brands are on a mission to discover more sustainable and lower-impact materials than the traditionally available options –but this is easier said than done. Away from the leather-using designs, trainers and casual shoes often rely on synthetic materials to give them the performance and design characteristics, as well as the mass-manufacturing ease, that they require.
Last autumn, Germany-based fabric fair Performance Days added a footwear section for the first time, suggesting this sector has been underserved in terms of showcasing new options for uppers, soles, adhesives, midsoles and components. The trade show’s CEO, Marco Weichert, says it was a “necessary extension”. “Now finally, suppliers from the footwear sector also have the opportunity to meet decision-makers from international brands, all concentrated in one place, to present their solutions and build long-term relationships.”
Performance cotton brand Ventile is making strides in the footwear sector with its recycled offerings.
At the show, HDry and Scarpa scooped the Footwear Performance Award for a design focused on mountain sports with minimal seams and the membrane directly on the outer fabric. Hohenstein and Lowa won in the Eco Performance Category for a 100% OekoTex certified model, despite the shoe’s more than 100 components, while Suedwolle Group won the Jury award for its 100% wool upper.
Another popular company at the show was Ventile, with its recycled fabrics receiving the 100% Jury Like. To receive the accolade, fabrics are assessed by a panel and only the few that receive the approval of every judge are awarded 100% Jury Like. Perhaps better
The Dr Martens 1460 boot, a special edition featuring Ventile L24 fabric in Blaze Orange and Black.
CREDIT: DR MARTENS
“ In recent years, we have seen a trend of footwear partners asking for sustainable materials, including our recycled range. ”
DANIEL ODERMATT, VENTILE
known in the clothing sector, Ventile’s fabrics are made from extra-long staple cotton fibres, woven in such a way that they become waterproof and windproof, while remaining breathable. The winning fabrics, Ventile ECO 430 RCO and Ventile ECO 400 RCO, are produced using 100% pre-consumer recycled cotton from the apparel, home furnishing and bed-linen industries.
Eco-driven
Initially based in the UK (see panel) but now under the ownership of Switzerland-based Stotz & Co, Ventile has a long history of supplying to the military and armed forces, and moved into the outdoor sector, followed by the fashion markets, in the 1990s. In 2018, Ventile launched an Eco range, using organic cotton and recycled options, which have proved increasingly popular: in five years, the company has grown its organic cotton usage from 20% to over 50% of sales. Considering only 2% of the world’s cotton crop is classified as organic, and only 2% of that is extra-long staple, the company’s requirements can only be filled by 0.04% of global production. To help support its cultivation, last year Ventile formed a joint venture with the Egyptian Biodynamic Association to support its membership in making the transition to organic and biodynamically cultivated cotton.
Ventile is not new to the footwear sector but is upping its focus, with brand partners including Dr Martens, Tretorn, Nike and Le Coq Sportif. In the same way brands such as Private White have done on clothing and accessories, the Dr Martens x Ventile 1460 Panel Boot displays a Ventile tag at the back of the boot – a demonstration of its brand recognition. “We are very proud when brands ask to use our logo and labels on
CREDIT: VENTILE
their items; it’s a testament to the value Ventile can add,” Daniel Odermatt, Ventile’s brand director, tells World Footwear. “In recent years, we have seen a trend of footwear partners asking for sustainable materials, including our recycled range . The way we craft our textiles means that we can offer environmentally friendly solutions without compromising on functionality, so customers can access certified all-natural fabrics whilst still getting a high-performance product that is weatherproof, windproof, water-resistant, with a PFCfree DWR, and highly breathable.”
Using cotton – and particularly recycled cotton, a shorter fibre, typically making it weaker – could be perceived as not durable enough for uppers, but Mr Odermatt confirms the fabric goes through some of the “most stringent” tests available in the textiles industry. It is placed in a tensile tear tester, which applies increasing
CREDIT: NIKE
Nike’s limited-edition Nike x Dover Street Market Air Max 1 Ventile.
Daniel Odermatt, brand director at Ventile
strain in an attempt to tear it, so suitable uses can be established. “Our team works directly with designers to help them select the most suitable fabric in our range for their collection. We work with them to sample different colours, weights and blends before deciding on the best fabric for them; there are no modifications to the weave, but we do offer a bespoke colour service. We have noticed a big appetite for our recycled cotton range, with particular interest in the heavier fabrics.”
Brand collaborations
Following a slight slowdown around the pandemic, Ventile has reported a tripling of sales in six years, benefiting from an increase in demand for slow fashion, or “the antithesis of fast fashion” as it describes itself. Brands favour the history and ethos of the brand, with Dr Marten’s footwear designer Stella Makinwa commenting, “As part of our Made in England range, we like to collaborate with suppliers who manufacture products with similar core values for quality and durability. Ventile was the perfect choice with its rich heritage in performance and weather protection.” Ventile has recently signed a partnership with a US brand, which it will announce later in the year.
Performance Days is similarly building its footwear focus. The overarching theme this autumn will be Colourisation – Chemistry is Everywhere. For the first time, a dedicated central theme has been defined for the footwear sector: innovative alternatives for manufacturing waterproof shoes. Mr Odermatt comments that adding a footwear section to the show demonstrates how important it is to the wider fashion section. “I think the team behind Performance Days do an amazing job assembling functional fabrics together in one place so designers can see the latest updates and innovations on multiple collections at the same time. Creating a one-stop shop will be helpful for designers looking to source fabrics across multiple collections and seasons in one go.”
Performance Days takes place on October 23 and 24 in Munich.
Life-saving fabric gains
new lease of life
Ventile’s first job was to save lives. During the Second World War, British fighter pilots were sent on reconnaissance missions, taking off from merchant ships. But with no way to land back on the ships, ejecting into the sea was treacherous and the outlook was grim: only 20% survived the cold water. The Royal Air Force (RAF) realised they needed new clothing, and the Shirley Institute in Manchester developed the tightly woven material using extra-long staple cotton which proved a game changer for the pilots: once wearing Ventile, the survival rate jumped to 80%.
Ventile was widely adopted by the RAF and used all over the world. It featured in the first successful summit of Everest in 1953 and was worn by Sir Ranulph Fiennes when he crossed the Arctic and Antarctic from 1979 to 1982. The British Antarctic Survey Team also used it for years, in jackets and in tents, protecting researchers from the 140mph winds.
“One of the beauties of Ventile is it is breathable,” explains Mark Burrows, who owned the Ventile brand from 2000 until his retirement in 2017. “Retired RAF pilots would ring up to tell me how good it was. The man-made fabrics that followed just didn’t give the same comfort and breathability at altitude. Hearing people’s stories who’ve been in the air with it or to the Antarctic makes you feel proud.”
The fabric was initially woven in UK factories, in Colne and then at Talbot weaving in Chorley. But as the British dyeing houses went out of business, it was sent to Switzerland for finishing, and a relationship with Stotz & Co was formed. It produced a similar product called EtaProof, and the companies later collaborated on the manufacture of the fabrics. When Talbot closed, Mr Burrows, its then production manager, took over the Ventile brand with a colleague. “Until then, it was mainly focused on Ministry of Defence, outdoor and expedition wear,” explains Mr Burrows. However, a meeting with a Nike executive catapulted it into the fashion and luxury sectors. “Companies began to put it in hats, jackets, bags and boots,” he says. “From then, it grew at a rapid pace.”
Shoe companies such as Converse and Clarks put in orders; Prince Charles wore a Ventile coat around Balmoral; actor Eddie Redmayne wore it on a magazine cover; singer Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green brand bought thousands of metres. “He loves it, he still wears it on stage,” says Mr Burrows. One of his principles was to keep the price the same for everybody. “I never discounted, no matter where they were from or the volumes. I believed the fabric was of good enough quality to hold its price. You devalue the brand if you start discounting, and our customers respected that.”
The growth of Ventile brought closer collaboration between the UK side of the business and Thomas Stotz in Switzerland. When Mr Burrows retired, the decision to sell the brand name to Stotz was an easy one, knowing it was in safe hands. “Its origin dictated that it had to be top quality, and the important thing is it has not been cheapened with lower quality yarns.”
In 2018, Stotz began to offer an Eco range, first with organic cotton, later moving into recycled cotton, hemp, lyocell and linen blends. In 2019, it launched a marketing campaign promoting its role in ‘slow fashion’, and in 2021, it moved to a fully PFC-free durable water repellent (DWR). Last year, it celebrated its 80th anniversary, testament to the lasting appeal of this high performing cotton fabric.
Performance Days expands its role as information platform
From October 23-24, 2024, the winter edition of the sustainable sourcing fair for functional fabrics, footwear, and accessories will take place at the Messe München grounds in Halls A1 and A2. In addition to showcasing the latest fabric and fiber highlights for the H/W 2026/27 season, exhibitors will present forward-looking innovations and sustainable solutions for the sports and fashion industry. The fair is expanding its education program with new areas and workshop offerings, including the newly integrated Bodywear Collective. Entry to PERFORMANCE DAYS remains free of charge.
All eyes on education
This year's fair will focus on education, featuring a comprehensive program and an extra workshop area designed to inform, network, and inspire. Karla Magruder will return with Accelerating Circularity in the Reality Zone with workshops on textile recycling. Ohana Public Affairs will run sessions on the incoming EU Green Deal, particularly the Eco-Design for Sustainable Product Regulation. The “NextGen Education Hub” will focus on young professionals, designers, and students, offering opportunities to learn about continuing education from universities, expand networks, and exchange ideas. The event will also feature Expert Talks, hands-on workshops, and the popular Sustainability Lounge. The talks include a keynote from Ohana on the EU Green Deal legislation, a keynote panel on the next focus topic, an update from The MicroFibre Consortium and much more.
All eyes on new ways of dyeing
Another major attraction will be the Trend Forum, focusing on the topic “Colorization: Chemistry is Everywhere,” which will highlight innovative dyeing techniques. This includes how synthetic dyes have replaced natural ones, and the development of biosynthetic dyes as a new solution that combines the positive aspects without negative associations. Don’t miss the “Color Surgery” with color expert Nora Kühner, in cooperation with DyStar, offering a chance to discuss color-related questions.
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After a successful event, PERFORMANCE DAYS looks to strengthen its role in the textile and apparel industry with new features.
All eyes on bodywear
In cooperation with Nichole de Carle, the "Bodywear Collective" platform aims to expand the range of stretch baselayers beyond traditional activewear. It redefines the baselayer by merging intimate products with outerwear, allowing brands to offer a wider variety of products. “We envision the Bodywear Collective as a nexus of innovation and collaboration, divided into five key categories: underwear, swimwear, wellness in motion, shapewear, and performance sportswear,” says de Carle. The platform promotes sustainable choices and introduces performance-based fabrics with cooling technology, antimicrobial benefits, and health-infused materials, allowing for multifunctional garments.
All eyes on exciting platforms
The Footwear Area will be expanded and will include a Test Range, allowing visitors to experience the latest products and technologies firsthand. The Technology Hub will also be enhanced, offering insights into cutting-edge innovations. James Heal will showcase equipment for measuring material quality, including the wet Martindale, wicking machine, and permeability tester, which will be available for visitor use.
With these developments, PERFORMANCE DAYS continues to evolve, providing an unparalleled platform for industry professionals to connect, learn, and discover the latest trends and technologies.
Fashion for Good headquarters in Amsterdam.
CREDIT: PRESSTIGIEUX
Ripe for disruption
Innovation
hub Fashion for Good,
has issued a call for innovators to help it create a more circular footwear supply chain.
Seven brands and retail groups are to work with innovation hub Fashion for Good to try to make the footwear supply chain more circular. They have said this initiative will build on work that Amsterdam-based Fashion for Good is already doing to scout and validate startups that are offering innovative ideas to help textile and apparel groups make their supply chains more sustainable.
On Running, PVH Corp, Inditex, adidas, Reformation, Target and Zalando are the companies that will take part in the new programme for footwear. The partners have said they will address “key intervention points needed to drive footwear circularity”.
September deadline
Because it identifies industry-wide collaboration as a vital part of overcoming “the various roadblocks we face in this space”, Fashion for Good has issued a call for action, asking “all relevant innovators” to apply to join in the movement. They have until September 20 to do so.
It says that around 23.9 billion pairs of shoes are produced globally each year and that these are often made using more than 40 different components per shoe. “The vast majority of discarded footwear ends up in landfill,” Fashion for Good explains. It adds that it wants to work with its seven partners and with the startups that join the programme to accelerate innovation and “lay the foundation for footwear circularity”.
Footwear reimagined
This effort will span four work streams across the supply chain and ability to contribute to them is what will make innovators relevant here. The first is to identify sustainable footwear materials. Second, traceability of materials will also be part of the work.
The third work stream focuses on design because the programme will seek to define circular design in footwear and to build “a circular infrastructure”. Work stream number four focuses on end of use, including sorting, disassembly and recycling. The partners want to develop comprehensive data on post-consumer footwear waste flows.
Fashion for Good managing director, Katrin Ley, says: “We and our corporate partners recognise the urgent need to accelerate innovation in footwear sustainability. Over the past seven years, we have consistently broken norms across various segments and are now leveraging our expertise to reimagine footwear, a segment ripe for disruption.”
But none of the work streams that innovators are being asked to contribute to here is straightforward. Traceability ambitions include establishing a new “footwear traceability data protocol”. As well as
The Futurecraft Loop shoe that adidas launched in 2019 to demonstrate that circular economy principles can apply to footwear. However, the group’s senior vice-president for product operations, Sigrid Buehrle, says that materials that have a low impact on the environment, meet performance requirements and are also scalable are in short supply.
CREDIT: ADIDAS
making shoes traceable, Fashion for Good’s intention is that this protocol should also provide evidence to substantiate sustainability claims that brands make about their products. Likewise, data is also at the core of work stream number four. The plan is to develop a comprehensive data set on post-consumer footwear waste flows to help manage disassembly and recycling. And once “circularity guidelines” are in place, the design workstream will focus on how footwear designers can make sure their work is in keeping with those guidelines, driving them forward and building “a circular infrastructure”.
Limited portfolio
The focus on materials seems to have received an immediate welcome from the footwear world. Sigrid Buehrle, the senior vice-president for product operations at one of the brands involved in the new Fashion for Good initiative, adidas, says she hopes it will bring change. Specifically, she thinks it may help brands and manufacturers identify a wider range of materials for use in their shoes. These must be materials that have a low impact on the environment, meet performance requirements and are also scalable. “Currently, there is a limited portfolio of these,” she says. “We hope this initiative will help overcome some of the hurdles.”
available now, featuring partly bio-based, renewable raw materials. Latex also continues to attract the imaginations of innovative people, as an August 2024 announcement from Seattle-based materials science company Yulex shows. After years of research and development, the company has launched Yulex 2.0, which it describes as natural rubber with increased elasticity and stretch.
Under our noses
Materials that Fashion for Good highlights polyurethane (PU), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), leather and rubber in its initial statement about materials. What it says about them is not completely clear. A press release it shared at the time of the announcement says “scouting and validating sustainable alternatives for footwear materials including TPU, PU, EVA, leather, and rubber” will be part of this workstream. On the face of it, this could mean different things.
It is most likely that the innovation hub wants to find alternatives to TPU, PU, EVA, leather and rubber for footwear producers to use in place of these materials. An alternative reading of the statement is that TPU, PU, EVA, leather and rubber could be among the possible alternatives that brands and manufacturers can consider in their attempts to build what it keeps calling “footwear circularity”. We have asked Fashion for Good to clarify this but without success. If, as seems likely, it hopes for innovators to come forward with viable alternatives, but low-impact, high-performing, scalable options continue to remain in short supply after it scrutinises the responses from innovators, perhaps it will have a rethink. Increasingly sustainable versions of many polymers are
Then there is leather. In 2021, with millions of hides going to waste every year, sustainability consultant Veronica Bates Kassatly said: “The most sustainable shoe fibre at present is leather from low-quality hides. No contest.” In the global context, heavy Texas steer hides are far from low-quality, but they are a product for which we have accurate historical and current price information and, therefore, can help illustrate this point. At their historical peak in 2014, these hides were fetching more than $125 per piece. At the time of Ms Bates Kassatly’s assertion in 2021, heavy Texas steer hides, at the heavier end of the weight range, were selling for $29 each. In August 2024, they were going for $16.50. To repeat, these hides are, typically, not low-quality, but they are low-cost these days and this helps make the sustainability consultant’s argument even more forcibly. If more footwear brands chose to use leather from these affordable hides, they would save huge volumes of useful, versatile, high-performance, beautiful raw material from going to waste. It would also mean there would be less need to use environmentally problematic synthetic substitutes that make the circularity problem so difficult to resolve in footwear. Perhaps the materials most suited to bringing about circularity in footwear are in front of our noses.
Work and play
The general secretary of the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry (CEC), Carmen Arias, has said the sector needs to do more to encourage young people in Europe to come to work in footwear manufacturing. She also says the industry needs to work with parents and teachers to convince them to accept that technical training and manufacturing jobs are good choices for many young people.
Ms Arias has been active in encouraging schools to take students to see how shoes are made today and says she hopes more education professionals will follow suit. Her view is that many school-leavers at the moment are unlikely to consider applying for a job in shoe production because they have an outdated idea in their minds about the way footwear factories work. “We have had some success in convincing footwear manufacturers to open their doors to young people,” she tells World Footwear. “Earlier this year there was a very successful visit by students to factories in Elche. And part of its success was that it won the support of parents.”
Bridge-building
On the wider subject of skills development and future-proofing jobs in the European footwear industry, CEC is a partner in a number of initiatives. Often, it
With labour and skills shortages high on the list of challenges facing the shoe industry in Europe, CEC hopes a new game can help bring young people into the sector.
works on these alongside organisations that represent textiles, clothing and leather. The European Union (EU), which provides all-important funding for many of the projects, has grouped the four fashion-focused industries together under the umbrella name of TCLF.
One such project, TCLF SkillBridge, launched this July. Co-financed by the European Commission, the focus of this project will be on 25 different regions across the EU that still have “a strong concentration” of manufacturing companies from one of the TCLF industries. For footwear, the most important clusters include those in Le Marche, Tuscany, Veneto, Campania, Lombardy, Apulia and Emilia Romagna in Italy. Those in Elche, La Rioja, Almansa and Mallorca in Spain are also part of the picture, as is the cluster in the Norte region of Portugal.
Keep skill levels high
The project partners want to develop “reskilling and upskilling action plans” specific to each region. Local authorities and education institutions, including universities and vocational education and training providers, will help deliver these action plans, providing support to small- and medium-sized companies in particular. The idea is to help those companies help their employees keep skills up to date so that businesses can continue to meet “the evolving demands of the market”.
Education and training programmes need to align with these regions’ economic priorities, Ms Arias says. She adds that the wider labour market is evolving and, in a global context, she says CEC is committed to helping footwear companies in Europe keep skills high and maintain a competitive advantage. She adds that it should be easier for qualified people from outside Europe to receive recognition for training they have completed in other parts of the world and for experience that they have built up in factories elsewhere. This, the CEC general secretary argues, will make it easier for people to find good jobs in Europe. It will also help European shoe manufacturers address the labour-shortage difficulties that they face.
Lots of fashionable young people have a passion for shoes. It’s time to encourage them to love the industry that creates the products they adore.
CREDIT: MICAM
Retirement age
Of course, skilled workers will still retire, often taking decades of craftsmanship know-how with them. Official retirement ages have gone up recently in a number of EU member states. Portugal’s state pension starts at 66 + 6 months, as it does across the border in Spain, although it is scheduled to move to 67 in Spain in 2027.
Many people will be in their mid-to-late sixties before they receive the state pension in Italy, but anyone who started working and paying contributions in Italy immediately after leaving school, as many footwear factory workers will have done, will qualify for a pension at or around the age of 60.
Game time
This brings us back to the challenge of attracting new generations of school-leavers into the industry to replace those departing. As part of its effort to spark interest in shoe production among today’s high-school students, CEC used previous funding from the Erasmus+ education support programme to create a video game about the industry.
Footwear professionals from Belgium, Romania, Spain, Portugal, and Greece all helped in the development of Shoe Game, which aims to introduce children to the footwear business in a “challenging and entertaining” way.
Young people can play the game on desktop computers or tablets. It consists of a total of 25 challenges that require observation, strategic thinking and soft skills. It takes about 45 minutes to complete. If players perform well, they can see the fictitious company that they are in charge of grow in terms of revenue, profits, customer acquisition, workforce stability and sustainability.
Students, teachers and members of the public have had the opportunity to try the game out, including at organised events and through social media channels. It is also possible for teachers to use it in a classroom setting as an educational resource for subjects such as economics or business studies. It is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Italian and French.
Around 5,000 users tried the game in the first two months after launch. “It is proving to be popular among teachers and their pupils,” Ms Arias says. “It involves a business scenario in which a fictitious shoe company faces going out of business. Players of the game have to come up with ideas that can turn things around.” Her hope is that it will help young people discover what working in a shoe factory in Europe in the 2020s consists of. Some players might develop a lasting interest in and love for footwear. After all, lots of fashionable young people adore shoes. Why shouldn’t they fall in love with the industry that creates them?
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