Industry defiant after Nike decision to drop kangaroo leather

Industry leaders have blasted animal welfare advocate “misinformation” that has led Nike and Puma to drop the use of kangaroo leather in their football boots, in favour of synthetic alternatives.

Nike last week said it will stop using kangaroo leather by the end of the year, a decision hailed as a “seismic event for wildlife protection” by Natasha Dolezal of the US-based Center for a Humane Economy, which had targeted the Oregon-based behemoth with a viral “Kangaroos Are Not Shoes” campaign video.

In January a bill proposing a complete ban on the sale of kangaroo-based products was introduced in Oregon, the US state where Nike has its headquarters. “It’s unconscionable that millions of native wild animals in Australia have been killed for the sake of high-end soccer cleats worn by an elite subset of soccer players,” said Floyd Prozanski, the Democrat state senator who introduced the legislation.

Australian kangaroo leather industry leaders were defiant in the wake of the decision.

“Today you’re always fighting one thing or another,” Lindsay Packer, chairman of 132-year-old Queensland family business Packer Leather told Smart Company.

“Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is out there with an issue. It’s illogical what goes on, a lot of it is emotive misinformation, and the campaigners won’t listen to the science — we work very closely with scientists to maintain healthy populations.”

“These animal activists just tell lies, they refuse to believe the science, they say the commercial industry is lying,” argued Ray Borda, Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia president.

“These people are condemning the commercial kangaroo industry, and inadvertently attacking the integrity of Australian science and governments.”

Packer and Boda say they are not concerned about the immediate impact of Nike’s decision on Australia’s kangaroo leather production industry, saying they are seeing strong demand from other manufacturers.

“I don’t mind competition against synthetics,” said Packer.

“They don’t do as good job as they think they do. After a few years, people will realise the quality isn’t there. We’ve seen it before: in the 1990s Nike walked away from kangaroo leather, and then they came back.”

“It goes in cycles, they are talking about synthetics, but where do the synthetics come from? Hydrocarbons. It’s not sustainable. Kangaroo is a renewable resource, it’s managed very carefully, the quotas go up and down based on weather conditions.”

The Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia represents kangaroo leather producers around Australia.

They say this product is responsibly sourced from an open-range environment where kangaroos graze on the natural pastures and foliage of the Australian bush.

“Animal welfare is our priority and our skilled, licensed harvesters follow the national code of practice for the humane treatment of kangaroos. Commercial kangaroo harvesting is independently monitored and checked at every step to ensure standards are upheld. Mandatory licensing and tagging systems mean every kangaroo harvested for the commercial industry can be individually traced back to the paddock.”

“95% of the material we use comes directly from meat works, from culled animals going into the pet food industry,” said Packer. “What’s the good of leaving part of this beautiful animal in the paddock?”