Leather Garment Manufacturers

Leather industry had always played a vital role in our society, from the days when leather hides were used as shields and protective clothing in battles to very stylish trendy fashion accessories of the modern day. Leather garments not only provide protection against the cold winter but they also prove as a vital part of our fashion statement. The leather industry has gone through a lot of changes and has come on top a winner on every front through its design and innovativeness.

Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and animal skin that consists of mostly cattle hide. The process of tanning involves converting the primary form of the animal skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for different uses. Pure leather is highly regarded throughout the world for its durability and long lasting use. There are different forms of Leather, there is the vegetable-tanned leather, which is tanned by tannin and other vegetable materials, and then there is the chrome-tanned leather, which is tanned using chromium sulphate and other chromium salts. Another common form of leather is the aldehyde tanned leather which is tanned using oxazolidine and other compounds; it is also referred to as wet-white leather. Synthetic-tanned leather is another form of leather, which is tanned using novolac. After this, there is the Alum-tanned (tanned with aluminum salts) and the rawhide.

Leather is used in different forms but one of the most lucrative markets of leather is the garment industry, since the leather garments if properly manufactured are expensive items and give high profits. Quite a few countries have mastered the leather industry worldwide such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Now days, China, with its cheap leather garment manufacturers exports has really created an adverse situation for the rest of the world. China being the number one country with respect to the lowest cost of production is surely the ruler of the market. It has been observed that even after imposing restrictions on imports from China, and imposing other Tariff barriers, the rest of the world. Including U.S and the UK have not been able to stop the inflow of Chinese finished leather products, as they are high in quality and cheap by price. So naturally they have a high demand throughout the world. UK is a very big and attractive market for foreign investors.

There are other countries as well which export Leather garments and other goods made up of leather such as Malaysia and Korea (south), but they too cannot compete with China, though they are high in quality. China accounts for 65% of the world’s leather exports, however, stiff competition amongst suppliers is resulting in consolidation of the industry.

The recent history shows that China is heading the market of the Leather garment manufacturers and it would require some Herculean efforts by the different competing countries to come to terms with the Chinese assault!