A hundred students from the Nordiska Textilakademin school in Borås (Sweden) have visited the Igualada leather ecosystem.

The visit forms part of these Swedish students’ final graduation trip; they chose Barcelona in order to get to know the area’s textile industries, clusters and other design and fashion schools.

Founded in 1986, the Nordiska Textilakademin trains designers and fashion business managers, providing the Swedish industry with professional skills.

The Swedish students visited Igualada with Modacc, the Catalan fashion cluster, and, making the most of their stay, they also discovered the world of leather through the Catalan leather cluster, Leather Cluster Barcelona.

At Adoberia Bella, the Swedish delegation attended an introduction by Jordi Vidal on the cluster’s ecosystem, projects and strategic challenges. The executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona then gave a presentation focusing on the leather sector as a key player in the circular economy and sustainable fashion.

The students from the Nordic textile school also visited Curtits Badia, where they were able to learn about the current industrial process of tanning quality leather, and A3 Leather Innovation Center, the research group of the Universitat de Lleida (UdL) at the Igualada Campus.

During their stay at A3 Leather Innovation Center, the Swedish party was accompanied by Igualada town councillor Patrícia Illa, who highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration and of working in competitive cooperation environments such as clusters.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is a competitive cooperation environment for promoting cross-cutting, 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.