PRODUCTS & SERVICES
WF
8
Footwear forum for Latin
America
T
he sixth Latin American Footwear
Forum took place in Buenos Aires
on August 25 and 26. The programme
included presentations from Argentina,
Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile,
Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela, as well as from visiting
delegates from the European Union.
Speakers shared perspectives on the
situation of the footwear industry in
their respective countries, drew out
common themes and discussed plans
to help the sector advance in all parts
of Latin America.
Timberland aims to use
50% renewable materials
by 2015
U
S-based footwear and outdoor
company Timberland, which was
recently acquired by VF Corporation,
has set its most ambitious goals yet for
its corporate social responsibility (CSR)
programme, which could have an
effect on its supply chain partners.
In announcing its goals and a new
communications portal to create
stronger dialogue with stakeholders,
partners and consumers, Timberland
said this latest step in its CSR
practices will influence how the
company does business.
“We want to be proof positive in terms
of the change we seek to influence
through our business. Our updated goals
now reflect this approach, and engaging
employees and communities in this
work is a critical part of our objectives,”
said Mark Newton, vice-president of
CSR for Timberland. The company’s
CSR emphasis goes back to 2000. Beth
Holzman, manager of CSR strategy and
reporting, said the new goals are
intended to push the company further
in reducing its carbon footprint,
boosting renewable energy use and
increasing the integration of recycled,
organic or renewable materials for its
product lines.
Timberland said it plans to increase
the percentage of renewable, organic
and recycled materials in its products
to more than 50% by 2015, more than
double its current use. It also wants to
increase its renewable energy use to
30%, also by 2015.
New Amann thread factory
in China is formally open
I
ndustrial thread producer Amann &
Söhne held a ceremony in May to
mark the opening of the new sewing
threads production plant it has built
in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, in
China. The new factory is co-located
with a twisting plant, which opened
in 2010, at the time of the ground-
breaking ceremony for the sewing
threads facility.
National and international guests
travelled to Yancheng, 270 kilometres
north-east of Shanghai, for this latest
event, including representatives of
different levels of government and
many of the thread producer’s
customers,
including footwear
manufacturers. They joined Amann’s
employees for the celebrations.
Chairman of the company’s board of
directors, Hanns A. Pielenz, and its chief
executive, Bodo Boelzle, presided over
the ceremony.
New footwear course
in León
T
he Technical University of León in
Mexico is preparing to launch a new
footwear course. The course will give
successful participants a qualification in
footwear production management.
Classes will start on September 5.
Practical training will constitute
around 70% of the course, with the
other 30% being classroom based. The
university has said that people
completing the course will have
opportunities in jobs such as
production supervisor, quality
manager, sourcing manager and
product design.
7
UK firm launches shoe sizing
iPhone app
A
small UK-based technology provider,
Mindskate, has developed an iPhone app
called ShoeSizR, that measures feet for shoes.
Mindskate has said it wants to make the app
available for free to footwear retailers to help
them engage customers for online and in-store
customers.
ShoeSizR uses the iPhone camera and a
sheet of ordinary paper to measure feet. Users
take a picture of their feet while standing on
the paper and move the on-screen sliders. The
app measures the length and width of the
feet, and is suitable for sizing even children’s
feet. It is a global app showing measurements
and sizes in US, UK, European and Mondopoint
systems.
People interested in trying ShoeSizR for free
should look for it on the iTunes App Store
from August 19.