The Swedish fashion shoe brand has been in the industry for more than thirty years. Ever since the start, the idea has been about offering designer shoes for a global audience, by knowing all there is to know about and shoemaking. Obviously, a big part of this is about materials. “No doubt leather has unique properties for shoes; it shapes, breathes and stands wear and tear like no other materials yet available on the market”, says Anna Fahle Björcke, Head of Communications at Vagabond.
The leathers used in our shoe production are bi-products of the meat industry and as such a solution for sustainable use of the whole animal. Nevertheless, the preparation of the raw hides to finished quality leather, is a quite resource intense process with several environmental aspects to keep in mind. To tackle these challenges, industry cooperation is needed. Therefore, Vagabond now engages in the Leather Working Group (LWG), both by becoming a member of the group and by selecting leather only from tanneries rated by the Leather Working Group. “Even if we have the material knowledge and inhouse capability to select quality leather suppliers, we have been looking for a forum where we can cooperate broadly with other brands on the environmental agenda and work together with the challenges that the tannery industry is facing as a whole.”
As for today most of our current leather suppliers are already rated by the LWG and a couple remains in process. “It is our intention to encourage and support the ones that are not yet certified to become members by the LWG within the next 2-3 years”, says Anna Fahle Björcke.
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