The Leather and the Consumer report is presented

Leather UK (the United Kingdom tanners’ association), Leather Naturally (the international association for the dissemination and promotion of leather) and the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT) of the University of Northampton have worked together to carry out market research in order to better understand consumer knowledge of leather and its origins as a by-product of the food industry.

This February the report was presented with the results of the survey carried out during November last year among 2,000 adults in the United Kingdom, which also explored the purchasing behaviour and consumption habits of British citizens.

The market research has produced encouraging results for the leather industry: for example, 67% of respondents who had recently bought leather said that this was because they could be confident that the leather would last a lifetime, a fact that directly links the leather sector to sustainable fashion, in contrast to the throwaway fast fashion model.

On the other hand, the survey also produces some very disappointing conclusions, since 55% of British consumers think that animals are bred specifically to make leather. This sad figure is very similar to the one found in the strategic consultancy project on the perception of the image of the leather industry and its products, which Leather Cluster Barcelona carried out over many months in 2019 and 2020 together with one of the international benchmark companies in the field of communication and strategy: Ogilvy.

The Leather Advertisement project, which the cluster was able to develop thanks to Acció’s IRC line of grants to clusters for reinforcing competitiveness, concluded that 51% of Spanish consumers believed that animals are slaughtered solely for their hides.

This coincidence between the results of the two surveys of British and Spanish consumers shows that the world leather industry has a pressing duty to explain itself, to communicate and to make itself known, with the aim of breaking down the mistaken stereotypes that part of society holds about leather and its industry.

It also shows the need for the various associations and stakeholders around the world to build collaborations and work together on tangible actions, especially in the fields of animal welfare certification, traceability and quality, key aspects for better understanding and improving the perception of leather and the sector in general among consumers.

At this link you can download the complete Leather and the Consumer report.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting and transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.