Leather is a unique natural product: soft and supple, but also tough and hard-wearing. Leather is versatile in shape and colour, has many uses and is still as popular in our modern, high-tech world as it was thousands of years ago.
Depending on the type of raw material and the choice of technology, the portion of the hides and skins that can be exploited using leather technology methods can be used to produce different types of leather, such as firm sole leather, sturdy shoe upper leather or soft glove leather. Leather can therefore be used to make shoes and clothing, bags, upholstery for furniture and car seats, and many other articles of daily use.
Its physiological advantages for clothing, namely, its ability to store moisture up to 30% of its own weight while maintaining a dry feel and to allow water vapour to pass through thanks to its porosity (breathability), its high mechanical stress resistance and its aesthetic surface and grip design, establish a utility value that has not been achieved by any synthetic or other natural material to date, despite intensive research, including into substitutes (Meyer et al., 2021). This requires well-trained tanners, today referred to as “specialists in leather production and tanning technology”. It is their work that turns the hides and skins of farm animals into the unique product, LEATHER.