“DriTan” caused a stir for the first time at the World Water Congress & Exhibition 2018. Ecco ‘s then new leather processing method showed a way out of the tanning process, which was anything but water-saving. Tanning is one of the oldest industries in the world, and the use of large amounts of water has always been a part of it. Worldwide, the annual water consumption for processing leather is estimated at 400 billion liters of water.
DriTan Open Source for all
However, when producing leather using the DriTan process, the Danish footwear manufacturer uses small silicone beads and does not use an external water supply. After years of research, Ecco’s development engineers have succeeded in preserving the natural collagen in the leather without using water.
The result can be experienced on the golf course this summer, for example, with the models from the new Biom H5 collection. The models in the current collection are manufactured using DriTan and are therefore produced very sustainably. Ecco’s developers point out that the leather does not differ from the material otherwise used in terms of wearing comfort, durability and stability. And – even better: Ecco made the technology freely available as open source on the global market and to everyone in order to ensure more sustainable leather production across the board.
Less chemicals and sludge
The company has thus made significant progress in the consumption of water, chemicals and the waste water produced: overall, it is estimated that many millions of liters of water are saved each year – within the entire Ecco shoe production process. In addition, the production of sludge, which otherwise accumulates as a residual product during the tanning process and is only processed again in a complex recycling process, is avoided – Ecco estimates that more than 600 tons less are produced each year.
Ecco has already received various awards for the development of the new tanning process, including the “Popular Science’s Best of What’s New Award” 2019. However, the topic is still new to the golf industry. In the first year of development, Ecco presented only one shoe model, the Tray model, with the then new production method. However, the objective was clear: in the long term, all Ecco shoes should be produced in a water-friendly way.
More good news from Ecco: “We are pursuing our Vision 2030 with pride and as a matter of course and are making really good progress in this important sustainable process,” says Thomas Maymann, Head of Product at Ecco. “For example, our headquarters in Denmark is completely self-sufficient in terms of electricity. Or we have found a way to turn the leftovers from leather production into a kind of yarn that we can use to sew or produce textiles. Or the Lake Ball project with a Spanish company, with whom we produce shoes from the old balls.”
