This week we are exploring attitudes to leather from our “Leather and the Consumer” – Research Report. When we polled 2,000 UK adults about their knowledge of leather and leather alternatives we revealed some good news for the industry, but we also uncovered an alarming level of mis-information.

At least 54% have purchased or used new or second hand leather. Of those who buy or use leather: 67% said it was because leather could be trusted to last a lifetime and 55% said it was because leather is a high-quality material.

53% of those who buy leather goods cited leather’s comfort and practicality as a key reason to purchase, while 37% saw it as easy to maintain and clean. 16% said they choose real leather because it has a lower environmental impact than imitation leathers such as PVC, while 13% see real leather as a status symbol. Around 47% of all the world’s leather is transformed into shoes, which is around three billion pairs of leather shoes per year (source: Leather UK). So it was no surprise that when we asked our respondents to name the leather item they had bought most recently, 31% said shoes or boots.

Over the following weeks we’ll delve further into these and other insights, which we hope will help inform and work to eradicate some widely-held myths surrounding leather.

*Research quoted from “Leather and the Consumer” – Research Report. The full report can be found on the Leather UK website https://lnkd.in/eEhYB9Zt