The Identity Store - Supplying quality leather materials to the public and entertainment industries

Adhesives

>	All Leathers, Hair-On Hides

>	Beads, Feathers & Native American

>	Books, Patterns, Templates & Stencils

>	Buckles & Belt Making

Conchos

>	Craftool Stamps

>	Dyes, Finishes, Conditoners, Tanning

>	Embossing/Carving

>	General Craft Supplies

Gifts

>	Handtools & Machines

Hardware

Kits

>	Natural Materials

>	Rivets, Snaps, Eyelets, Studs etc

>	Stitching and Lacing

>	The MakE Store - NEW craft kits & more

>	The SALE Store

Globe The Changing Carbon Footprint of Leatherwork
Countless leather tanning and making methods have been developed over the last 5,000 years. In every country of the world, each has its own unquantified carbon footprint and degree of sustainability. Originally, ancient peoples used benign wood smoke and natural oils to make soft and durable leather, similar to today’s chamois. With the event of agricultures; bark and leaf tannages came into widespread use. These new methods gave firmer, denser leathers, suited to horse gear, hard-soled footwear, belts and armour. In addition, “Alum”, a naturally occurring mineral salt, was used in many desert regions to make soft leather with a smooth grain. Methods developed and spread with trade; leather was the material you reached for when you needed something soft, strong and flexible.

Cowboy In the last three centuries virtually every town in every country had a tannery to service the local population needs. The industrialisation of processes in specific areas had much to do with the negative environmental image that the industry developed.

In the late 19th century chromium salts were developed as tanning agents and their use spread quickly due to its suitability to industrialisation and quality of leather it produced. Other synthetic chemicals were developed for use in conjunction with chrome.

The trivalent form of chrome sulphate is the dominant tanning method throughout the world. Its use has to be carefully controlled and rigorous testing employed to prevent the production of carcinogenic Chrome VI in process or in final leather. Properly controlled chrome tanning has produced billions of square feet of leather without detrimental health effect. Many modern industrial processes rely on similar control for their reliability.

Tannery However chrome cannot be the sole future. There are questions of sustainability, as well as process control. There is no recognised one way of categorising leather for either carbon footprint or “organic-ness”. However there are groups of people throughout the world working for sustainability and reduction of leather’s environmental impact. At present customers of leather products can only examine the credentials, values and results of people that are selling them. It will be a gradual process because of the infrastructure that has developed, but we will get there.

The Identity Store Position
Our customers are usually working on a small scale in specialised genres. They produce timeless quality leather products that last. It's craft rather than massive operation. We provide them with natural materials to work with; non toxic oils and waxes, natural wax cotton threads, water based eco dyes and finishes and natural sustainable leather.

We’ve added care and conserve to the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ principle and are endeavouring to achieve this under the following headings:-

1. Reduce and Improve
2. Care and Conserve
3. Re-use and Re-sell
4. Recycle

1. Reduce and Improve
Leather

Over 75% of the leather we sell is pure vegetable tanned.

All leather is produced in tanneries with an explicit policy to continually reduce their environmental impact.

Additionally our work in digital image surface decoration reduces the environmental impact of leathers by over 50%. It enables leading edge looks and fashion effects to be produced on an organic leather base. We were part of the winning team of London’s Fashion Fringe recently; green aesthetics are here now, the days of hippy-dippy green decorating are over. Beautiful surface designs can be added to organically dyed leathers.

Identity Organic Leather

At present under development, it is based on:-

Skins or hides from animals that are humanely raised and organically fed;

Organic tannage and colouring;

Surface decoration by either laser, embossing, carving, pyrography and organic digital printing;

Third party certification.

Leatherwork Materials

We continue to increase our offer of organic or sustainable products in all areas of our business.

2. Care & Conserve

Good leather, naturally produced, matures beautifully with age. With help from selected waxes and oils this process can be enhanced and the performance of the original leather improved. We recommend a series of leather care products and can demonstrate and advise on their effects.

Our Northampton Store is within a mile of two leather research and development organisations and the National Leather Conservation Centre.

We work with two Shoe Repairers so can give your shoes a “complete overhall”.

3. Re-use and Re-sell

At our Matlock Store, we have a full vintage section of leather and natural material; clothing, shoes and bags. There is a beautiful collection from the 40's through to the 90's. Eventually we will have the most interesting, including Bill Gibb, Jean Muir etc. up on our web site but in the meantime come and visit!

We also give a £2.00 voucher for any reasonable condition leather product you want to dispose of. These we either recondition and resell or cut up for reuse in other things.

4. Recycle
We believe in a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach, but if the life of a leather product has to end the biodegradability of all parts of the product have to be considered. Under the right conditions leather can be composted and we are working to understand the differences in biodegradability between different leathers. Undoubtedly vegetable/smoke tanned leathers lead the way.