Happy World Wildlife Day!
It’s World Wildlife Day, a day for us to consider the other living animals we share this earth with. Honestly, it is a practice that most of us don’t reckon with in our day to day lives. When is the last time you saw an animal in the wild, that wasn’t a squirrel or a pigeon? On this day, we wanted to get into the hard question of REAL LEATHER and sustainable fashion. While many people in our community STRONGLY believe that we should be phasing out real leather for the myriad of fruit and vegan leathers now available on the market. The real inconvenient truth is much more complicated and requires nuance.
So, we are often asked how Sieme can be both a REAL LEATHER and SUSTAINABLE band?. The truth is that over 95% of leather used in the fashion industry is a bi-product of the meat industry. This is because across the world, we eat A LOT of these animals. A convenient counter narrative claims that the meat industry and the leather industry are two different supply chains. However, once you take even a peak at the economics, this rumor is quickly debunked. On average, the leather accounts for only 10% or less of the cost of the animal and is often an added bonus to the bottom line.
Don’t get it twisted, at Sieme, we DEFINITELY believe that we should ALL be eating LESS MEAT and fighting for an industry that is ethical, sustainable and regenerative. Deforestation, methane emissions and inhumane factory farming are all rampant problems within the current meat industry that DEMAND our immediate attention and action. However, over the last 30 years, meat consumption has continued to rise globally. As countries become more industrialized, wealthier, with a stronger middle class, more people want to consume real meat.
Meanwhile, those alternative fruit and eco leathers on the market… almost ALL of them contain plastic polymers or binders to give them that “real leather look”. This means that most of them, especially the cheap ones used by fast fashion companies are NOT biodegradable at all. Additionally, when compared to quality real leather which can last decades, these materials often last only a few seasons, ending up in landfills or second-hand markets at breakneck pace. However, as popularity for these less expensive materials increases, demand for real leather has plummeted. According to a recent article by the NY Times, last year alone, we buried or burned 5 million hides there was no market for.
At Sieme, we believe that using materials already in the supply chain and keeping them OUT of landfills is better than even the most sustainable NEW materials. Indigenous peoples have long understood that if we consume meat, we have an obligation to use all of the animal to its highest potential. At Sieme, our way of honoring this obligation is to transform discarded leather left over from the fashion industry into truly special, artisan crafted leather goods. This is us trying to get back to using every single part of the resources we are taking.
If you are still with us, thank you! We know, this is A LOT. Here in the heart of Tuscany, the leather industry is over 1000 years old. As long as industrialized luxury brands continue to produce real leather bags in this region, there will be real leather waste. On this World Wildlife Day, we are re-energized in our mission to rescue this leather and advocate for more sustainable and circular practices in BOTH the fashion and meat industries until the day when factory farming AND leather waste are both eradicated.
