The “Sustainable Leather Contest” moves into high gear. The competition, promoted by Smit & Zoon, leader in chemical products for the leather industry, which in 2021 will arrive at the milestone of 200 years of successful business and innovation, focuses on sustainability as its best practice and focus. A value that is part of the company’s DNA and which today is interpreted by designers Alexandros Vasdekis, Guglielmo Gorno, Hommy Diaz, Javier A. Mogollón, and Laure Wolff in the five finalist capsule collections that feature sustainable leather as the protagonist – understood as a by-product of the meat industry subsequently enhanced through tanning, but also as a material supported by a value chain that is socially and ecologically sustainable.

The five selected footwear talents, among the best alumni of the Arsutoria School, an internationally recognised institution for footwear designers, guarantees a wide variety of approaches and creativity in the Smit & Zoon design challenge. Coming from five different countries, with different backgrounds and various perspectives, they enrich the results of the challenge by inspiring new outlooks and further developments of their ideas.

The five capsule collections are aimed at the high-end range and are made up by six footwear models each, made using sustainable leathers treated with the chemical products of Smit & Zoon, with two prototypes per finalist to eventually be chosen for development.

Click here to better know about Smit & Zoon, contest, participants and their capsule collections.