Why leather isn't sustainable anymore?

Leather has been the go-to raw material for footwear for as long the history of footwear can be traced. It has been identified as the best raw material available for making shoes because of its inherent properties of temperature regulation and breathability. In fact it had no real competition.

But, what changed in recent times that leather went from this supremely robust and fairly sustainable material (if we keep the chrome tanning part aside) to this evil monster trying to end the world?

Well I did some research and came to a rather interesting conclusion.

Leather as a raw material has fallen victim to a massive negative propaganda that has been relentlessly pursued by the savvy oil and petroleum industry and their processing ecosystem. Blame also goes to the leather industry as they continued to sleep while their house was on fire (we will discuss the reason why they aren't as savvy as their counterparts later).

Some of the negatives that were highlighted are true but not to the same extent. It has been blown out of proportion. For example cruelty on animals - it has been propagated that leather industry slaughter animals to sustain their input. These slaughter houses are unhygienic and animals are kept in really bad conditions and treated worse. There is some truth to this but the whole leather industry can't be held responsible for a few bad apples. Rather most of the skin for leather is taken after meat industry has processed the animal. That is a really sustainable practice as far as securing input for leather is concerned.

Another point raised in this campaign is around processing of leather and the use of harmful chemicals to process wet-blue to finished leather, the process we know as tanning. I actually agree with this point - chrome tanning being harmful to environment and alternate methods of tanning like veg-tanning should be promoted. Chrome tanning speeds up the process but is not a sustainable solution. This to me is an evolving situation and leather industry must diligently find eco-friendly ways to process leather. But to say this is worse than the plastic materials that are in use in the name of vegan leather etc. is delusional.

Recently, after enough damage to its reputation, leather industry has come out to defend itself. But as I said, leather industry is yet to learn to market itself properly and the reason it's not as savvy as the ones spreading misinformation against it lies in the mindset of the industry at large. They still consider themselves primitive, operating in the eighteenth century, unwilling to change with time, incapable of innovating with their processes.

They must understand that the game has changed. We live in an information age which can be manipulative and consumer isn't really going to a leather school to learn about the properties of leather. You need to take initiative and educate them to influence their consumption habits.

Hope the leather industry open its eyes and see what they are up against.