All leathers, regardless of where they are sourced from will shrink. Leather is a natural product and shrinking is a natural occurrence that cannot be avoided. However, responsible tanneries conduct chemical and mechanical tests to monitor and control the amount of shrinkage.
The relevant standard is ISO 17130:2021 — Leather — Physical and mechanical tests — Determination of dimensional change (contact us for a copy). The tests prescribed by this standard are performed in a tannery’s laboratory and cannot accurately be conducted at home, or at any leather jacket maker’s workshop, where the necessary specialized equipment is not available.
Our Tannery: Conceria Victoria S.R.L.
The horse leather we use is sourced from Conceria Victoria S.R.L., one of Italy’s highly regarded tanneries, equipped with state-of-the-art production and testing facilities.
We would like therefore to emphasize on the word “responsible“.
The tannery is a holder of the ISO 9001 certificate which is an international standard for a company’s Quality Management System (QMS). In simple terms, it means the company has established documented processes for consistently producing products/services that meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.
Moreover, the tannery has been awarded the Leather Working Group (LWG) Gold certification which is a certification awarded to a leather manufacturing facility/tannery that has achieved the highest medal rating under the LWG audit system which amongst others certifies the traceability of the leathers and responsible production practices of the tannery.
The tannery holds a comprehensive range of certifications, (downloadable below) including:
UNI EN ISO 9001 – Quality of production processes Certificate
UNI EN ISO 14001 – Attention and respect for the environment Certificate
Raw material traceability and ethical Claim Certificate
UNI EN ISO 45001 Health and safety management system certification
MADE IN ITALY – Product certification -Italian origin of leather Certificate
ICEC – Istituto di certifiazione per l’area pelle – Certificate of Sustainability
Leather Working Group Gold Certificate
Taken together, these certifications provide strong evidence of the tannery’s commitment to the quality of their processes and end product.
What About Leather Shrinkage?
Returning to the issue of shrinkage, the industry standard for the maximum acceptable shrinkage in quality leather jackets is >1.0–2.0%, while ≤1.0% is considered excellent, and >5.0% is considered the worst.
Suppose your jacket’s pit to pit measurement is 22 inches
A 1% reduction would mean about:
22 × 0.01 = 0.22 of an inch or 5.5mm
A change of 5.5mm is insignificant and certainly does not justify the false claims that our jackets may lose a half inch or an inch in every measurement.
Half or one inch loss in dimension would mean one size down which implies that our leathers belong in the worst possible category of above 5% shrinkage. This is a false and misleading assertion which constitutes an unethical attack made to harm our reputation and undermine confidence in our products, which may subsequently cause us financial damage. One should question the background and motives of the individuals making such serious defamation claims.
We stand behind the quality of our materials and the standards of the tannery from which we source them. The certifications listed above and testing procedures described previously are not just empty marketing claims; they are solid evidence of a structured commitment to quality and responsible leather production resulting in a premium product.
We believe customers deserve accurate, technically grounded information—not unfounded claims designed to create unnecessary concerns.