Curious about Shoes

Shoes, leather and a lot of cows

Agile shoe brands of today are very good at communicating transparency. By transparency we mean the product’s origin, how the labour is treated, the right to organize unions etc. Codes of conduct are used to regulate suppliers’ behaviour and to let NGO’s into the plants. The big firms like Adidas and Nike have come a long way from the secret sweat shops of the 90’s. Nowadays most is tracked and monitored.

The only thing we can’t find any good reporting on is where all those cows that make up the raw material for the shoes are hidden. They have to be around somewhere. Are they the same ones that we eat? What do they eat? Could leather be produced in another way? How about gen modified wrinkly cows, crossing a Shar- Pei with your average cow? The benefits in cost, environment and leather per cow makes the idea more sane then it sounds.