The Real Reasons Leather Football Boots Are Dying

FourFourTwo

The football boot business is a money spinning global phenomenon. But with demand for new models and constantly developing technology, other factors are also dictating how and where boots are being made. From environmental pressures, to strategic moves and more - these are the the real reasons leather football boots are dying!

Transcript

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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