First published in International Leather Maker : 11 February, 2020 Eighteen months ago, we were having dinner with Bob Higham and his wife Diana in their house in Berwick, on the border of Scotland and England. Recently having entered his eighties, he was still actively interested in the leather industry, and busy continuing to plan more […]
Robert Sykes 1929- 2018
POSTED ON OCTOBER 11, 2018 Dr Robert Sykes OBE. Defining the Leather Industry of the 20th century In 1994 Robert Sykes, who sadly died on the 5th October aged 89, called me and asked if I would be willing to talk to the International Council of Tanners about “Branding Leather” at their annual meeting in […]
Remembering John Basford
John Basford was one of my earliest and closest friends when I joined the leather industry. It was always one of my delights to look ahead to the many days of reminiscing over two long, but very diverse, careers in the leather industry with some of John’s excellent wine from the Wine Society, membership of […]
Rediscovering Portugal
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 12, 2015 Portugal with ICLT Over the last ten years I have become very identified with the University here, even although my involvement has always been part time and quite marginal. It is odd as it means I get identified as an “academic’ whereas all my career has been factory based and […]
Restarting the Museum of Leathercraft
POSTED ON JULY 18, 2014 The Museum of Leathercraft All of the Honorary Leather Graduates at this week’s ceremonies studied last century and some come from the days when leather teaching in the UK had three Campuses. Leeds University, Leathersellers in London and Northampton. It was in the 70s when they all got combined into […]
Professor Nishimura on Japan, Student Prizegiving
POSTED ON MAY 8, 2013 Particularly Engaging Students For those readers who are keen listeners to BBC Radio then Robin Day’s World of Business is a must listen. I download them as podcasts and listen in the car while I drive up to the University from home. The programme this week was “Job Search: Millions of […]
The hide will not adapt itself to the leather market
Leather is a synonym for paradox I seem to remember the start of the year beig very much defined by three months of travel to sports and outdoor trade fairs in the US and Europe, coming up for air with APLF in Hong Kong. The sports shows have reduced in number and the way tanners […]
Old leather dogs and a career in leather
POSTED ON MARCH 7, 2013 A career in leather For the first time ever to my knowledge someone held a career day in leather last week. All through my career students have essentially slid into a life of leather through patronage or accident. Peripheral people who might want to consider leather just did not exist. […]
Thoughts on Coach
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 21, 2013 Evolution at Coach I first met Lew Frankfort in the mid 1980s. I was just getting to grips with a move from making leather into a new role with greater focus on marketing and selling it. Coach was a small company then, nearer $50m if I remember correctly, but it […]
Sad News at the end of the year.
It is with great sadness that we learned that Peter Upstone died unexpectedly of a heart attack in September 2012. He was 68. I first met Peter at Leeds University in the 1960s when I was a Fresher and he had completed his BSc and was in the final stages of an MPhil in the […]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »