The advantages of having leather inspected at the tanneries

July 5, 2017

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The leather inspection service was born with Impactiva, so we have endless success stories to tell. We want to bring attention back to it now because we believe it is extremely useful in today’s landscape of consumers’ urge to see-now/get-now combined with e-commerce speed and low-price expectation.

Leather is a beautiful, noble, but not economical material. Our statistics show that we reject at the tanneries an average of 5% of the quantities presented to us for inspection. You can do your own calculations according to the prices you are paying for your leather. Shipping that 5% of out-of-spec leather would entail more shipping costs, re-inspections at the shoe factory, the possibility of a claim with the consequent wasted time in settling it and, what is worse, the risk of the shoe factory actually using that defective leather!

Contrary to what might be thought, the tanneries appreciate our work, they can better understand their client’s expectations, we help set up fair product specifications, and they appreciate not receiving so many claims.

We can also coordinate tanneries with shoe factories so that the incoming leather can go directly to be cut without re-inspections, saving substantial time and labour. Using Impactiva’s Leather QA service with this “Direct-to-cutting” component, our clients achieve a reduction in their footwear manufacturing lead-time of as much as 15 days!

Now, going back to leather defects, we would like to show some pictures of the kind of defect we prevent from reaching your shoes:

 

Badly trimmed leather (all that is unusable square footage you pay for)

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - bad trimming 2 DCIM100MEDIA

 

Massive scratches, there is no way to fit a pattern:

DCIM100MEDIA Impactiva Leather Quality Control

Scratches and ticks, what an ugly combination!:

Leather defect - scratches and ticks

 

Deep veins: grain can burst when lasting, apart from impairing the aesthetics of the shoe:

Impactiva Quality Control Leather defect - deep veins 2

 

Color variation within the same lot (if the client approves different shades, we have them measured and packed separately):

Impactiva quality control

 

Ticks, when they are clustered they cause a big waste of leather since they can’t be cut into any visible part of the shoe:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - ticks 2

 

Pin holes, can’t go in any visible part of the shoe:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - pin holes 2

 

Growth marks: passing the finger over them you can feel the ups and downs when they are really deep:

DCIM100MEDIA Leather defect - deep growth marks 2

 

Grain off, just can’t be used:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control

 

Looseness, should definitely be avoided:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - loose grain 2

 

Hair not completely removed: usually if you touch it you can even feel the hair!

Impactiva Leather Quality Control

 

Machine fold marks, more sq.ft. that can’t be used:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - machinery fold mark 2

 

Rib marks, if they are too contrasting the shoe finish won’t dissimulate them:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control DCIM100MEDIA DCIM100MEDIA Leather defect - rib marks 4

 

Not through dyed, if the final product style has raw edges the factory will need to ink all edges, adding labour and materials cost:

Impactiva Leather Quality Control Leather defect - Not through dyed 2 Leather defect - Not through dyed 3