A Look Behind "Made in Italy"
For many people, “Made in Italy” is automatically synonymous with the highest quality, craftsmanship, and luxury. This reputation is particularly deeply ingrained in the world of leather goods. But when you look behind the scenes, a different picture emerges: a country of origin and a promise of quality are not the same thing. And “Made in Italy” is no guarantee of sustainable or responsible production.
Processing center instead of country of origin
The Italian leather industry is indeed a major processor of leather. As the report “A Tough Story of Leather” by the Swiss organization Public Eye shows, while Italy produces only 1% of the world’s raw hides, it accounts for 17% of the global value of finished leather. This is a clear indication that Italy is primarily a center for processing, not for livestock farming. At the same time, the Italian tanning industry is heavily dependent on imported raw materials: According to the same study, 97% of the leather processed in Italy comes from imported raw hides, and only 25% of that is tanned from scratch in Italy—the rest is “wet blue” that has already been pre-tanned abroad and is merely finished in Italy. As for the raw hides themselves, the study indicates that the largest quantities come from France (25.7%), Germany (11.4%), and the United Kingdom (8.8%); for pre-tanned “wet blue” leather, Brazil (19.6%), the United States (10.6%), and Paraguay (8.1%) lead the way.
Italy is therefore primarily a center of processing, not livestock farming. This separation of origin and processing clearly demonstrates that quality cannot automatically be tied to the country of origin.
Before a piece of hide becomes “Italian leather,” it has often already been on a long journey—from animal husbandry abroad to the tannery.
Quality isn't a matter of your ZIP code
Hides tanned in Italy can vary greatly in quality, depending on animal husbandry, transportation, tanning processes, the chemicals used, and environmental standards throughout the entire supply chain. “Made in Italy” says nothing about this. The leather may be made from raw hides imported from the Amazon that were produced under questionable conditions, or it may fall short of social and environmental standards during processing. Even within Italy, there are significant differences between regions, companies, and their practices.
The Dark Side of the Tanning Districts
Although Italy has stricter environmental and labor standards than many manufacturing countries in the Global South, challenges remain. Serious problems continue to arise, particularly in regions with a high concentration of tanneries: As reported by the Italian business newspaper *Il Sole 24 Ore*, in the Tuscan tanning district of Santa Croce sull’Arno—one of Europe’s most important leather centers—highly toxic residues from tanning production were illegally disposed of for years with the involvement of mafia-linked organizations: declared to be supposedly harmless construction materials, they found their way into road foundations, agricultural soil, and infrastructure projects throughout the region. As the daily newspaper Il Tirreno further reports, some 60 contaminated sites are now known throughout Tuscany, with chromium contamination of soil and groundwater. In Solofra, southern Italy—another major tanning hub—there have also been repeated cases confirmed by authorities: The Italian news agency ANSA recently reported on a tannery that continued to illegally discharge chromium into the Sarno River despite an official seizure, a fact also confirmed by official measurement data from the environmental agency ARPAC.
Italian tanneries tan, finish, and process leather; the raw material itself usually comes from another country.
Transparency Instead of Origin Labels
For us, one thing is clear: quality and responsibility are not geographical attributes. “Made in Italy” refers to the location where the product was manufactured—not to the quality of the material or the fairness with which it was produced. We therefore disclose where the hides come from, how they are tanned, and under what conditions they are processed. For us, transparency means making traceability, environmental standards, and social responsibility visible and verifiable throughout the entire value chain—not just relying on a label of origin.