RAW MATERIAL
          The raw materials of general leather shoes are cowhide, pig and sheepskin, and some high-end products will choose special animal skins such as horse skin. Most of these materials come from slaughterhouses and are by-products of animal husbandry.

    According to statistics, more than 1 billion rawhide hides are used for leather every year, and if humans do not use these rawhide hides, it will not only waste resources, but also pollute the environment after decay.
    After the raw hide is obtained by the slaughterhouse, it is preserved by basic preservative methods such as salting, drying and cooling, and then sent to the tannery. 
    After the tannery gets the hide, the pretreatment before tanning should be carried out, including meat removal, hair removal, water immersion, ash leaching, softening, acid leaching and other processes. The main purpose is to remove excess material from the rawhide.

TANNING
       After pretreatment, the raw hide can be tanned. The tanning process is an important step in transforming rawhide into a usable leather material for leather shoes.

       Simply put, it is to soak the hide with tanning solution for a long time, and produce physical and chemical reactions with the hide collagen in the hide, which increases the stability of the collagen structure, and thus becomes a usable and durable leather. This process plays a decisive role in the final leather quality.
       Tanning methods mainly include traditional plant tanning and industrial chrome tanning, as well as some special tanning processes. Different tanning methods, the characteristics of the leather will be different, but also affect the use of the leather, such as chrome tanning leather can be cut thinner, suitable for more occasions.
       Plant tanning is said to have originated from the ancient people's method of making hides by soaking branches, leaves, fruits and other plants for a long time after hunting. The principle is to use tannic acid in plants to combine with collagen reaction. This method is relatively environmentally friendly, but the processing time will be longer.

       In the 19th century, people invented the chromium tanning process, which used trivalent chromium as a tanning agent to tanned rawhide. This method can accelerate the tanning speed and is suitable for modern industrial production. At present, most of the leather we contact uses chromium tanning, but because of the participation of chromium, the waste water generated in the tanning process has great harm to the environment.

    With the strengthening of people's awareness of environmental protection, some large chemical companies are also trying to improve tanning methods. For example, the Dutch company Stahl has developed an easy white tanning process (EasyWhite Tan™) that does not use chromium, which not only reduces the amount of chemicals used in tanning, but also simplifies the tanning process and reduces the tanning time.

WHITEWASH

       The tanned leather will be painted, primed and embossed according to the requirements of the shoe factory. It is then transported to the shoe factory.

Although China is the world's largest leather manufacturing country, but we are also the most shoe-making country, so China still needs to import a lot of foreign raw skin every year.

FACTORY MADE
         After receiving the leather, the shoe factory will select the material and open the material (according to the design style of the shoe, cut into a suitable small piece, ready to splice).

Trim, close (stitch together small pieces of leather)

Install midsole and sole.

At this point, a pair of leather shoes is made.