00:00Level photo boots used to be king. Every legend from Pele to Beckham to Ronaldinho wore them.
00:04But if you look at today's boots, there's almost zero leather. Nike killed it, Puma killed it and
00:09now even Mizuno are phasing out the most famous natural material of all, kangaroo leather. But
00:14why our brand sacrifice is tradition? Today we're diving into the four key reasons around the switch.
00:19This is why the level photo boot is dying.
00:24The best-selling level photo boot of all time is the Adidas Coppa Mundial, a boot traditionally
00:28made in Germany from kangaroo leather. To many it is more than just a boot, but a symbol, class,
00:34simplicity, tradition. Models like the Puma King and the Lotto Stadio evoke similar feelings and the
00:39icons until about the 90s likely wore kangaroo leather boots, whether it be the aforementioned
00:44boots like the Predators or the Nike Premiers. But times change and technology progresses and
00:50the first kind of move away from leather was based primarily in innovation. Even the most ardent of
00:54leather four-boot lovers would accept that the material does have a tendency to do things like
00:58retain water or potentially to overstretch, both obviously undesirable for elite performance
01:03products like four-boots. The response, in addition to of course better quality leather, was to build
01:08lighter, better performing materials and arguably what developed was a material divide based on
01:14types of boots. Boots built for speed aimed at being tech-forward such as the Nike Mercurial Adidas
01:19Predator with less emphasis on these things were able to continue to be made from leather. This
01:30wasn't hard and fast as there were iterations of both the Tiempo and the Predator that were made from
01:34synthetic materials. As the trend of lightweight boots continued and intensified, the distinction
01:40became less and less clear. And although the kind of race we had about a decade ago with brands seeming
01:45to kind of like compete to make the lightest boot ever seems to be over. Boots are clearly
01:50significantly lighter and less bulky than they were even 20 years ago meaning inevitably leather
01:55has been utilised less. Technology has also allowed brands to develop materials that imitate the fit
02:00and feel of leather but without some of the downside. The Nike CTR 360 was extremely popular even leading to
02:06a remake of the boot and this featured a Kanga light leather aimed at replicating the feeling of kangaroo
02:11leather. To this day there are people who don't even realise that that boot wasn't made from
02:15leather at all. In recent years some of these leather alternatives have really picked up steam with
02:19the Silky Wrap from A6 being the favourite of many and Puma recently releasing the latest Puma King
02:23with Total Touch Plus replacing the K-Better that was first introduced when the brand moved away from
02:28leather in 2023. Recently Nike unveiled the Nike Tiempo Maestro at its HQ in Portland and the tech
02:33leather that makes this up has been extremely well received. This is particularly significant off the
02:38back of some of the negative response to the Tiempo Legend 10, the first since Nike decided to do
02:42a way of leather around the same time as Puma did. If brands are able to engineer products with all
02:46of the upsides of leather but with all the downsides then there's no real reason to use it. The question
02:50from many of course is whether these materials are actually able to replicate leather and whether
02:55they do so to an extent that's great enough to justify their existence and the exclusion of leather.
03:01Natural leather is of course an animal product. Care leather has been so branded largely to shy away from the fact that it is in fact
03:07kangaroo leather. At a time where there's pressure on brands to act ethically and in a way that respects
03:12the environment there's inevitably pushback on the use of a material that necessitates the death of animals.
03:17Cynics may say that the concern that brands have with the ethical element of anything is driven more
03:22by needing to be seen to have these as a priority than the actual concern but either way it makes a
03:27difference and it means that leather has been used less as its use has become harder to justify
03:31particularly in the face of pressure from activist groups. We have also seen the emergence of brands that
03:35are concerned with these ethical questions most notably Soquito. The Soquito de Vista Vegan was the
03:40first boot ever to be certified vegan and the brand has followed up with the impressive Scudetta model.
03:45They now boast an impressive and ever-growing list of investor athletes including the likes of Millie
03:49Bryant and Ashley Westwood. That the brand has been able to manufacture elite boots not just without
03:53leather but without animal products at all increases the scrutiny on bigger brands with bigger budgets whose
03:58failure to do so then begins to look a little bit more like a deliberate choice. This is something that
04:03won't have gone unnoticed by said bigger brands and will likely then play a greater role in the
04:08development of all boot tech going forward. The pressure from activist groups and societal
04:12attitudes in general has a wide-reaching impact. Tied to ethical concerns with the user level are
04:16changes in law that undoubtedly have played a role in the changing approach from brands particularly in
04:20the last few years. A law was introduced in California in 1971 outlawing the import and sale of kangaroo
04:26products but a moratorium meant that these could be traded in the state from 2007 until in 2015 when
04:33the ban was reimposed. In 2020 the government of California admitted that it had been unable to
04:38enforce the ban and there were calls from the Centre for Humane Economy for a crackdown.
04:42Obviously the US market is massive but the California market specifically is significant with
04:47it being the largest single market in the world football boots. Releasing models that simply cannot
04:52be sold in their biggest market is clearly an unattractive proposition for any brand.
04:55So for this to lead to a transition away from kangaroo leather is unsurprising.
04:59There is also the possibility or indeed probability that other states and nations may follow suit
05:04with similar legislation making the incentive for brands to get ahead of the game in terms of
05:08alternatives all the greater. Lo and behold the Kangaroo Protection Act 2025 has been proposed and
05:14would ban the import and sale of leather across the United States. If this does eventually take effect
05:20any boot brand still reliant on kangaroo leather would immediately see a significant drop in their
05:25market share with the large economy in the world a no-go zone for a large section of its products.
05:30This may even have played a role in Mizuno, arguably the biggest proponent of kangaroo
05:34leather in the market, announcing a letter to the Centre for a Humane Society that they were to phase
05:39out the material and instead use more ethical alternatives earlier this year. The picture that
05:44begins to develop is one where leather appears to be more of a hassle than it's worth for brands.
05:50Adidas' role in this is very interesting. While Nike and Puma have left it behind,
05:55in recent years has begun making boots from calfskin leather rather than kangaroo leather.
06:00This decision is one that bridges two of the reasons we are seeing brands make these moves.
06:04Much of the legislation both proposed and enacted centres on kangaroo leather specifically,
06:08so the use of calfskin leather allows brands to continue to make boots in a similar fashion
06:12to that which people love but to neatly sidestep the changes in the law.
06:16We even now see calfskin leather used on limited edition remakes of Adidas boots from
06:20yesteryear and on the Copa Mundial, where this subtle change has allowed Adidas to at least maintain
06:25the appearance of business as usual in the midst of significant change.
06:29Substituting K-leather for calf leather also allows the boots to be made more cheaply,
06:33so when sold at the same price represents a significant increase in margin.
06:37The leather used on models such as the modern copper range and boots such as the
06:40Rotero Predator 24 and Obsidian Strike Predator 25 are of a quality and softness that makes them,
06:46it makes it irrelevant whether they're kangaroo or cow, but then the cost factor is also then likely to
06:51partly drive brands to create their own leather alternatives rather than continuing to buy leather
06:56for their football boots.
06:57An interesting spanner in the works has come in the shape of the Puma King
07:00Platinum Pantera Negra recently released to celebrate the legacy of Portuguese Leusebio.
07:06As mentioned, Puma took the step of moving away from using leather in 2023,
07:10but the recent special edition release is made from, you guessed it, leather,
07:13though calf leather rather than kangaroo. This has made Puma's stance on leather in boots
07:18unclear and also heightened anticipation of the just released remake of the iconic Ronaldinho
07:23Nike Tiempo Legend boot from 2005. Boot lovers looked on with bated breath to see whether this boot
07:28would be made from leather just as the original was and the remake in 2015 that the latest release
07:34is molded on. The answer was no, as the boot is made from a version of Nike's new tech leather,
07:38signalling emphatically that Nike appeared to completely be done with animal leather even if Puma
07:43may not be. It's clear that going forward we'll continue to see less and less boots made from
07:47leather as all of these factors, cost, societal attitudes, law and technology combined to make
07:52the use of leather harder and harder for brands to justify as more than anything other than a niche
07:58offering. In the end it's of course primarily a business decision, so despite the pain cries of
08:04traditionalists up and down the country and indeed all over the world, leather will continue to be on
08:08the way out. So what do you think of leather boots? Do you like them? Not like them? Don't care?
08:12Let us know in the comments then. I'll see you soon.
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