Leather goods have long been a major revenue generator for fashion and luxury companies, and global demand for leather goods such as handbags will continue to grow. According to Marketwatch, the value will increase from the current USD 95.5 billion (a good EUR 89 billion) to USD 122.7 billion (almost EUR 115 billion) by the end of 2026.
According to Planet Tracker, this growing demand for leather and animal-derived materials is exacerbating the sustainability crisis and having an outsized impact on climate change, resource use, environmental degradation, public health, human rights and animal welfare. Planet Tracker is an organization dedicated to changing the practices of financial decision makers to avoid ecological collapse.
Last month, Stella McCartney unveiled a vegan luxury handbag made from mycelium to much fanfare, but the London fashion house will remain a niche market as it doesn’t sell mass-produced goods.
With companies like LVMH posting record profits for their fashion and leather goods categories (roughly a 51 percent increase in 2019), consumers and businesses alike are looking for sustainable alternatives that are functional, stylish and cost-effective.
What would a fashion industry look like without animal leather?
A new study by Planet Tracker explores what the fashion industry would be like without leather – and more importantly, what it would mean for the environment. Pioneers developing alternative textiles could soon transform the leather goods market; with far-reaching implications not only for the environment but also for farmers and those whose livelihoods depend on raising and selling livestock.
Investigations by Dr. Catherine Tubb, head of textiles at Planet Tracker, show that any disruption to the textile industry should allow access to cheaper and better alternatives to the materials used today. The winners will therefore always be those who are better and cheaper, which means that from an economic point of view upheaval is inevitable.
Bovine leather derived from cows accounts for over 65 percent of the global leather market, and more than half of that is used to make shoes. dr Tubb notes that the leather industry itself is extremely inefficient as hides are of limited size and quality varies. Above all, there is a lot of waste, not only from the processing, but also from the use of the unconventional shapes that animal skins have, and much remains unused.
Historically, many leather alternatives were made from plastic, which still makes up the majority of synthetic or faux leather/vegan options today. New ingredient-based opportunities ranging from lab-grown solutions to next-generation bio-based materials offer alternatives to fossil-based materials. This exciting new phase is already transforming the industry and delivering a superior end product that exhibits properties of leather such as suppleness, finish, durability, permeability and warmth.
FashionUnited asked Dr. Tubb on how the shift to new materials would impact luxury companies and brands and what incentives there are for them to get involved in the pioneering phase.
Because luxury brands secure their leather years in advance, they suffer less from supply chain problems and are better able to absorb higher prices. Could this indicate that these companies’ transition to alternative leathers is slower and less urgent?
Luxury goods companies have the capital and time to find better alternative sources of leather. So while they have fewer immediate supply chain issues, they can invest in new technology now, even if the payback is three to five years from now. These next-generation materials offer other advantages that are attractive to luxury goods companies, such as a better environmental footprint both during manufacture and at the end of their life. It is likely that luxury goods companies will be the first adopters as the products are still more expensive to begin with; however, costs will fall quickly.
Eventually, technology and the advent of new materials will triumph and transform the animal skins market, which will have a positive impact on deforestation and carbon emissions. How quickly could these effects realistically be observed?
The industry is still in its infancy and will need capital to scale up this effort. However, once businesses and consumers have embraced the new technologies, the disruption is likely to be faster than expected. In ten years, these technologies will likely be so much better and cheaper that using traditional animal sources for leather no longer makes economic sense.
No time to waste
Every year an unimaginable four billion land animals are slaughtered, plucked or sheared for the materials industry. 25 percent of the world’s carbon budget will be consumed by the fashion industry by 2050 if no changes are made. With more than half of consumers willing to buy alternatives to leather due to the environmental impact, this shift can’t come soon enough.
Sources: Planet Tracker and Materials Innovation Initiative
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Edited and translated by Simone Preuss.