Thread by @DMDent

Great move but also don't assume all leather is 'not traceable'. When you attend international fashion trade/leather fair big or small, raw leather & product companies all keen to show you shift to more eco friendly methods- been going on decades: real enemy FAKE leather ALL crap

https://twitter.com/SusFoodTrust/status/1347966607822356480

So if a boutique buys Turkish leather or sheepksin from an Afghan wholesaler, that wholesaler they'll not only tell you what country its from but the breed of sheep/cow! Often its even British but has been round the block to process & go into products. So for eg Turkey imported

live Irish cows and now use in their leather products. Just because that is all difficult to explain to the consumer doesn't meant its not traceable. The problem, is corporate use of pu leather because for them ALL leather is too expensive for them to make huge profits on

So hopefully @SusFoodTrust you will appreciate this and while I welcome the idea, TAKE CARE not to make consumer wary of leather in general when its pretty much all better these days than the pu alternatives. We DO need more processors of hides in UK, but most are not interested

in doing it. So for eg I have been unable to source any UK mouton fur makers in UK they all go for the rug market etc. So many raw sheepskins go abroad to make in to 'finished' products the market actually wants. Huge gap in the market for it.

Why no UK producer is doing this atm is beyond me when demand is high, as a few niche flying jacket makers will tell you. Sad a lot of the west country big sheepskin coat makers are gone - once so many they were able to provide us all with them!

And he deamnd is there but the supply is NOT in this country those middle men are gone, and the small niche people are crazy prices and not interested in doing what the market wants. So we are now in the crazy situation where a 1970s UK made sheepskin penny lane coat will go for

£400 second hand, yet nobody in UK interested in MAKING. So tanned hides will end up still going abroad for those who are wanting to create, and the vintage market going crazy.
So find me a UK company that will produce me sheared polished mouton, or patent leather. They don't

have with economy of scale or the trust to give it a go as there's no investment. Yet, millions are thrown at cactus leather rebranding of pu as eco friendly - nuts