“People used to portray the leather industry as backward, polluting and nowhere near perfect. But the modern industry we see today is very different from how it is portrayed in the media. That’s why LEATHER NATURALLY was founded.”
Magazine Leather Team at the 2024 Hong Kong APLF Fair and our interview with Debbie Burton, President of the LEATHER NATURALLY Association.
We are the Magazine Leather team who joined APLF in Hong Kong, celebrating 40 years of APLF. And now we are here. We are here at LEATHER NATURALLY’s booth with Ms. Debbie Burton. As we start our interview, we would like to get to know you better. Who is Debbie Burton?
Debbie Burton came into the leather industry by accident. I started my career in the sports industry. Then Pittards, a leather manufacturer in the UK, needed someone to get their shoe leather into the sports market. They thought they could teach me about leather but they didn’t know the sports market. So they hired me for knowledge in this field. So I thought that was interesting, and I went into them on the first day, I’d never been in a tannery before, it was just outside Northampton at the time. It was a tannery. I went into the tannery and I loved it and I think I’ve thought about it a lot since then and yes, I’m still here.
It’s important for me to work very closely with the people who make the product. I would love to do that one day, you know, I would be working with the guys in the tannery and we would be looking at new leathers and how to make it better, how to make it higher performance, how to make it look good.
And the next day I could be on the design team of one of the big shoe manufacturers or shoe brands and talk to the designers about what leather looks like. About what they want and what we can do for them. But I think it was this closeness to the people who were making things.
Interesting story, isn’t it? ….
I took a break while I was working at Pittards, I worked in the product department for Timberland and Clarks. I can wear shoes and leather again. I never really got away from the industry.
Oh right, okay. So yes, I’m someone who came into the leather industry by accident.
I’m going to leave after a long story. Yes, but actually most of the people I’ve met in the leather industry got into it by accident. My former CEO used to say that if you’re in it for two years, you’re in it for life. Yes, it’s really true, for anyone who lasts two years. I agree with that. I think you meet very passionate people in the leather industry.
As the new Association President of Leather Naturally, what can you say about Leather Naturally? What does this association simply aim for?
In really simple terms, we have a mission to better educate people about leather. This association came about because we saw that people were badly informed.
And normally they were badly informed because somebody had another product they wanted to sell. So they were saying our product is a gray leather badge. And the reason why they said leather was bad was wrong, they were making things up. People portrayed the leather industry as backward, polluting and nowhere perfect.
But the modern industry we see today is very different from how it is portrayed in the media. That’s why LEATHER NATURALLY was founded. I think to present the facts, and I always speak this way, the facts… No, not with emotions, not with exaggerated claims, just facts like this. You know, leather is responsibly produced and this is what it looks like.
Eğer deriyi kullanmazsanız, çöpe gidecek. Bu et endüstrisinin bir yan ürünüdür asıl bunu kullanmazsak çöpe gidecek. Yani gerçekten çok basit olduğunu söyleyebilirim. İnsanlara deri hakkındaki gerçeği anlatmak için kurulduk.
So, can you tell me what you think about green regulations lately?
I think this is going to be very, very important for all businesses but especially for fashion because it means that people cannot make claims that a product is environmentally friendly without backing it up. So the new EU claims like this product is more than product X, this product is more sustainable, it requires less energy, but you need to be able to prove all these things and you need to be able to prove that it’s true.
Not only does it have to be proven true, it has to be verified by a third party. And I think that will take away a lot of the hype around sustainability. And I would say already people are realizing that sustainability is a more complex issue. And just, hey, it’s sustainable, you know, you can never say that, but hey, it’s sustainable…
It’s an absolute thing. We all know it’s a journey, but I think consumers have been sold this myth. I think they’re already starting to realize that it’s more complicated than that. And I think these claims will actually simplify a lot of the messages.
Sharing and disseminating accurate information to people in situations that would lead to inaccurate comparisons, which is what Leather Naturally set out to do, so we will present the facts. We have to give people the facts.
As Leather Naturally, we will celebrate WORLD LEATHER DAY on APRIL 26th with all of us who have served the sector. What would you like to say about this?
This year we are focusing on the theme “Repairing, reusing and redesigning leather” because what we are seeing in the world right now is that there is a backlash against consumerism and we are seeing that people want to buy fewer things and keep them longer, repair them.
Being able to fix things again has become more common and more important. People see it as a skill. They actually see it as a value. They see it as a badge of honor to have things that they fix and use for a long time. So we saw that the designers were thinking about how this product could be repaired over its lifetime.
If I’m making a bag, how can I place the zipper so that we can change the zipper without destroying the bag? How can we change components? How does this happen in shoes? And what happens at the end of the product’s life cycle? We see designers thinking about these things before they even put pen to paper.
I think there’s a big movement against consumerism. And leather is the perfect material for that. And we want to encourage that. And I think it’s very different, because a few years ago we spent a lot of time educating people about where leather comes from and that it’s a by-product.
Now I would say the tone and the main message is changing towards how leather can be good. As part of the circular society that we are aiming for now. How leather can be good together with other natural materials plays a really important role. I don’t know if you came to the LEATHER NATURALLY presentation this morning (at APLF HK) but that was a strong part of our presentation; we think it’s a great time for leather.
We’re at the right time right now. We are in a good position where we can show how we can be a force for this.
Dear Debbie Burton, President of LEATHER NATURALLY, to the Magazine Leather Team, thank you very much for your time.
I thank you and wish you good work.
“People used to portray the leather industry as backward, polluting and nowhere near perfect. But the modern industry we see today is very different from how it is portrayed in the media. That’s why LEATHER NATURALLY was founded.”
Magazine Leather Team at the 2024 Hong Kong APLF Fair and our interview with Debbie Burton, President of the LEATHER NATURALLY Association.
We are the Magazine Leather team who joined APLF in Hong Kong, celebrating 40 years of APLF. And now we are here. We are here at LEATHER NATURALLY’s booth with Ms. Debbie Burton. As we start our interview, we would like to get to know you better. Who is Debbie Burton?
Debbie Burton came into the leather industry by accident. I started my career in the sports industry. Then Pittards, a leather manufacturer in the UK, needed someone to get their shoe leather into the sports market. They thought they could teach me about leather but they didn’t know the sports market. So they hired me for knowledge in this field. So I thought that was interesting, and I went into them on the first day, I’d never been in a tannery before, it was just outside Northampton at the time. It was a tannery. I went into the tannery and I loved it and I think I’ve thought about it a lot since then and yes, I’m still here.
It’s important for me to work very closely with the people who make the product. I would love to do that one day, you know, I would be working with the guys in the tannery and we would be looking at new leathers and how to make it better, how to make it higher performance, how to make it look good.
And the next day I could be on the design team of one of the big shoe manufacturers or shoe brands and talk to the designers about what leather looks like. About what they want and what we can do for them. But I think it was this closeness to the people who were making things.
Interesting story, isn’t it? ….
I took a break while I was working at Pittards, I worked in the product department for Timberland and Clarks. I can wear shoes and leather again. I never really got away from the industry.
Oh right, okay. So yes, I’m someone who came into the leather industry by accident.
I’m going to leave after a long story. Yes, but actually most of the people I’ve met in the leather industry got into it by accident. My former CEO used to say that if you’re in it for two years, you’re in it for life. Yes, it’s really true, for anyone who lasts two years. I agree with that. I think you meet very passionate people in the leather industry.
As the new Association President of Leather Naturally, what can you say about Leather Naturally? What does this association simply aim for?
In really simple terms, we have a mission to better educate people about leather. This association came about because we saw that people were badly informed.
And normally they were badly informed because somebody had another product they wanted to sell. So they were saying our product is a gray leather badge. And the reason why they said leather was bad was wrong, they were making things up. People portrayed the leather industry as backward, polluting and nowhere perfect.
But the modern industry we see today is very different from how it is portrayed in the media. That’s why LEATHER NATURALLY was founded. I think to present the facts, and I always speak this way, the facts… No, not with emotions, not with exaggerated claims, just facts like this. You know, leather is responsibly produced and this is what it looks like.
Eğer deriyi kullanmazsanız, çöpe gidecek. Bu et endüstrisinin bir yan ürünüdür asıl bunu kullanmazsak çöpe gidecek. Yani gerçekten çok basit olduğunu söyleyebilirim. İnsanlara deri hakkındaki gerçeği anlatmak için kurulduk.
So, can you tell me what you think about green regulations lately?
I think this is going to be very, very important for all businesses but especially for fashion because it means that people cannot make claims that a product is environmentally friendly without backing it up. So the new EU claims like this product is more than product X, this product is more sustainable, it requires less energy, but you need to be able to prove all these things and you need to be able to prove that it’s true.
Not only does it have to be proven true, it has to be verified by a third party. And I think that will take away a lot of the hype around sustainability. And I would say already people are realizing that sustainability is a more complex issue. And just, hey, it’s sustainable, you know, you can never say that, but hey, it’s sustainable…
It’s an absolute thing. We all know it’s a journey, but I think consumers have been sold this myth. I think they’re already starting to realize that it’s more complicated than that. And I think these claims will actually simplify a lot of the messages.
Sharing and disseminating accurate information to people in situations that would lead to inaccurate comparisons, which is what Leather Naturally set out to do, so we will present the facts. We have to give people the facts.
As Leather Naturally, we will celebrate WORLD LEATHER DAY on APRIL 26th with all of us who have served the sector. What would you like to say about this?
This year we are focusing on the theme “Repairing, reusing and redesigning leather” because what we are seeing in the world right now is that there is a backlash against consumerism and we are seeing that people want to buy fewer things and keep them longer, repair them.
Being able to fix things again has become more common and more important. People see it as a skill. They actually see it as a value. They see it as a badge of honor to have things that they fix and use for a long time. So we saw that the designers were thinking about how this product could be repaired over its lifetime.
If I’m making a bag, how can I place the zipper so that we can change the zipper without destroying the bag? How can we change components? How does this happen in shoes? And what happens at the end of the product’s life cycle? We see designers thinking about these things before they even put pen to paper.
I think there’s a big movement against consumerism. And leather is the perfect material for that. And we want to encourage that. And I think it’s very different, because a few years ago we spent a lot of time educating people about where leather comes from and that it’s a by-product.
Now I would say the tone and the main message is changing towards how leather can be good. As part of the circular society that we are aiming for now. How leather can be good together with other natural materials plays a really important role. I don’t know if you came to the LEATHER NATURALLY presentation this morning (at APLF HK) but that was a strong part of our presentation; we think it’s a great time for leather.
We’re at the right time right now. We are in a good position where we can show how we can be a force for this.
Dear Debbie Burton, President of LEATHER NATURALLY, to the Magazine Leather Team, thank you very much for your time.
I thank you and wish you good work.
