What's Actually in Your Leather Sandals

Most people buying leather goods like shoes or handbags, and in our case leather sandals, have no reliable way of knowing what they're actually buying. The information that would let them make an informed decision like where the hide came from, how it was processed, whether the brand can trace it at all  is either absent from the label, obscured by certification language, or buried so deep in a supply chain that the brand itself couldn't tell you with confidence.

We know this because we spent months trying to find out, before we made a single sandal.

What "Made In" Actually Tells You

Bovine leather, or cowhide, is the dominant material in global footwear. It's widely available and relatively inexpensive to process at scale. The industry has relied on it for long enough that most consumers don't question it. When we assessed it against our own criteria (where it came from and whether that could be verified, how it was produced, and what it meant for the people and environments involved) the picture was considerably more complicated than the labels suggested.

Traceability, knowing where the hide actually came from, is where bovine leather runs into its first serious problem. "Italian leather" is one of the most trusted signals in fashion, carrying connotations of craft, quality and provenance. What it means legally is that the leather was tanned or finished in Italy, not that the animal was raised there or that the hide originated anywhere near the country. Brazil is among the world's largest exporters of bovine hides, and Italy is one of its most significant markets.

 A 2025 investigation by the UK-based nonprofit Earthsight, titled "The Hidden Price of Luxury," traced leather from Brazilian meatpacker FriGol through two Italian tanneries, Conceria Cristina and Faeda, and into the supply chains of Louis Vuitton, Coach, Fendi and Hugo Boss. The investigation used satellite imagery, shipping records and court documents to follow that leather from cattle ranches operating on illegally cleared Amazonian land and Indigenous territory, to finished goods sold in boutiques around the world.

The problem extends well beyond luxury. Stand.earth's 2022 report "Nowhere to Hide" identified over 100 brands across price points with supply chain connections to Brazilian leather exporters linked to Amazon deforestation. Stand.earth was careful to note that a connection does not constitute proof of direct sourcing, as fashion supply chains are deliberately complex, but the opacity is itself the problem. A brand cannot guarantee the provenance of leather it cannot trace.

Why Certification Doesn't Solve It

Certification compounds the confusion rather than resolving it. Both tanneries named in Earthsight's investigation held gold-level certification from the Leather Working Group, the international body that sets environmental standards for leather manufacturing. Earthsight reported that LWG itself acknowledged its certification is not a guarantee of deforestation-free status. The standard assesses how a tannery operates environmentally, not where its raw material originated. A tannery can be exemplary in its processing while having no visibility into the land use practices that produced the hides arriving at its door.

The provenance problem is then compounded by the way the industry has framed leather itself: as a material with no meaningful commercial weight of its own, simply rescued from waste.

Bovine Leather Is More Co-product Than Byproduct

One of the most persistent claims in the leather industry is that bovine leather is a byproduct of meat and dairy production: that the hide would otherwise be waste, and buying leather is therefore a responsible act of material efficiency. Meat and Livestock Australia classifies hides as a co-product in their own industry reporting because the hide carries genuine commercial value alongside the meat, and abattoirs that have reported declining hide revenues have recorded multi-million dollar losses as a direct result.

The environmental and ethical credentials of bovine leather depend almost entirely on how and where it was produced, and that's information most brands either don't have or aren't sharing. Even when you know what animal the leather came from, you often can't tell what you're actually looking at.

What to Ask a Brand

Most brands will answer general questions about their leather with general answers. The questions worth asking are specific enough to require specific answers.

• Where were the hides sourced, and in which country was the animal raised?
• What tanning method was used?
• What is the leather grade?
• What finish has been applied?
• Can the brand name their tannery?
• Can the product be resoled or repaired?

A brand that can answer all of these directly, and back the answers with evidence, has actually looked at their supply chain. A brand that responds with certification badges and general sustainability language probably hasn't.

Next in the Series

Knowing where leather comes from is only the first part of understanding what you're buying. Next week we look at what leather actually is — how hides are graded, what full grain, top grain, corrected grain and bonded leather mean in practice, and why the grade of the raw hide sets the ceiling for everything that follows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "Italian leather" actually mean?

It means the leather was tanned or finished in Italy. It says nothing about where the animal was raised or where the hide originated. Italy imports a significant volume of bovine hides from Brazil, and finished leather products can legally carry an Italian origin label regardless of where those hides came from.

Is bovine leather a byproduct of the meat industry?

The evidence suggests it is more accurately described as a co-product. Meat and Livestock Australia classifies hides as such in their own industry reporting, reflecting their commercial significance to the supply chain. Abattoirs that have reported declining hide revenues have recorded multi-million dollar losses as a direct result, which suggests the financial relationship between the leather and meat industries is more entangled than the byproduct framing implies.

What should I ask a brand about their leather?

Where were the hides sourced, and in which country was the animal raised? What tanning method was used? What is the leather grade? What finish has been applied? Can the brand name their tannery? Can the product be resoled or repaired?

Are D'Arçé sandals traceable?

Yes. Our leather sandals are made from kangaroo leather sourced from Packer Leather in Narangba, Queensland, a fifth-generation family tannery founded in 1891. Every step from hide to finished sandal is local and verifiable.