By Callum Ludwig
After years of marketing from groups such as the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance, significant international sports brand names Puma and Nike have actually revealed they are ditching using kangaroo leather, referred to as ‘k-leather’ from their items by the end of 2023.
Due to its strength, k-leather was utilized in the upper product football boots such as the Puma King or Nike Tiempo however will now be changed by a brand-new microfibre innovation which Puma claims have actually outshined previous boots in touch, convenience, and sturdiness.
President and creator of the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance (VKA), which started in the Yarra Ranges, Alyssa Wormald said the VKA are thrilled and discovers it heartening to see big corporations making the relocation in line with their customer expectations.
“The kangaroo protection movement has a long history and there have been some really impactful wins along the way. The import bans in California and Russia, and the RSPCA rejecting kangaroo pet food were particularly notable advances,” she said.
“It has been pretty incredible to have two big wins with Puma and Nike ditching kangaroo leather alongside import bans pending in the USA and Europe.”
The previous Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning or DELWP (now referred to as the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action or DEECA) has a 2022 Statewide Abundance of Kangaroos in Victoria report, which discovered that there were an approximated 2,418,000 kangaroos in the state in September and October 2022, primarily Eastern Grey Kangaroos.
Ms Wormald said the loss of these huge merchants will definitely hurt the kangaroo market, and ending the commercialisation of the massacre is a crucial objective.
“We know that there are innovative ways to peacefully coexist with wildlife, but as long the commercial industry exists there is no incentive for the development and implementation of such methods,” she said.
“We hope that community action and international censure will provide the incentive and political will to do better.”
In Victoria, authorised harvesting of Eastern and Western Grey kangaroos is allowed under the Victorian Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan (KHMP). This followed the Kangaroo Pet Food Trial (KPFT) held from 2014 to 2019 where under the Authority to Control Wildlife (ATCW) system, landholders might eliminate and get rid of kangaroos themselves. According to the KPFT Evaluation report, there was a 250 percent boost in kangaroos killed in the state, which amounted to over one million kangaroos throughout that time. The report discovered the increased variety of kangaroos authorized for control ‘may not only compromise the aim of reducing waste, but could also threaten the sustainability of kangaroo populations in future years.’
President of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia (KIAA) Ray Borda said in a declaration that Nike altered their instructions a long time ago in 2021, as did Puma.
“From our perspective, some of these materials decisions can be a move towards new synthetic alternatives rather than a move away from Kangaroo. We have always seen shifts in and out of kangaroo and other leather over time by various brands and across various products,” he said.
“These relationships don’t underpin the industry – we have other shoe manufacturers that have increasing demand and recognise the environmental benefits of kangaroo leather. Kangaroo leather is fast becoming known as an eco-friendly option due to its longevity, biodegradability, and sustainability.”
The KIAA is presently promoting carbon footprint accreditation for the harvest of kangaroos, highlighting the truth that those kangaroos have one-third the carbon footprint of other animals like livestock and sheep. They have actually indicated decreased methane emissions, less water intake, less influence on grazing lands and ease of capture and include as crucial signs of this.
