1)Shoe Materials;

UPPERS & LINING

Leather:

The leather is made of three layers; top layer called EPIDERMIS (not used in footwear), the middle layer said DERMIS (used in footwear) and the bottom layer called IPODERMIS (fat reserve not used in footwear). During the tanning process, the hair of the animal is removed, leaving pores or grains visible on the top side of the leather and for this reason called Top Grain. The bottom side instead is called The Flesh Split. The leather can additionally be classified in open grain (open pores when they are separated) like sheep and goat (Kid Skin if young) and closed grain (smaller pores) when they are tight and close to each other like bovine and cattle. Pig skin can be easily recognized by the patterns of islands made of 2-3 large pores, separated by wide empty space. Pic skin are usually used for lining since less costly.

The animal skin, depending on the area of the animal, is divided into different sections and for the footwear industry, the best part is the middle back, also called “Bend” which has regular and uniform pores with maximum resistance. We can illustrate this with our free leather Mouse Pad. The neck and shoulders are also used and the lower quality are the shanks, then the belly and butt.
There are also exotic leathers like Fish, Ostrich, Reptiles, and Horse.
Tanning of the skin with chemicals (mineral) or vegetable (natural) tanning will give the skin it’s richness, and mainly stabilize it to keep it from decaying and rotting.

FUNCTION: Top Quality Leather, once tanned by experts with professional knowledge will be conserved and mainly enhance its richness and beauty and transformed itself into a real masterpiece material, bringing vitality and brilliance to any shoe.

Italian Footwear Solution uses only the finest quality prestigious leathers with fine closed grains coming from the bend area of the animal. This ensures shoes with the highest brilliance look, quality, and durability including softness for the best deal of comfort. The prestigious leathers used during our production combined with expert craftmanship will ensure the best quality for all shoes which carry our brands giving our customers the certification of excellence for the best experience in look and walk.