Two Dutch heritage companies Royal Smit & Zoon and Van Drunen Schoenfabriek have teamed up to study how sustainable leather performs in real footwear production. Together they bring more than 200 years of leather expertise and over a century of shoemaking skill.
The goal is simple but powerful. Both companies want to understand how sustainable leather performs in every step of making a shoe.
The collaboration centers on Zeology which is Royal Smit & Zoon’s patented tanning technology designed for circularity and high performance. Both teams worked closely to see how Zeology leather behaves during each demanding stage of shoemaking.
Experts across Royal Smit & Zoon contributed to the project. Their material specialists and leather technologists worked on tanning and crust development while customer facing teams shared feedback from the market.
This helped them study Zeology leather not just from a technical view but also from a functional and user point of view.
Van Drunen Schoenfabriek added its own deep craft knowledge built on fit comfort and day to day performance. Their factory team opened their process and worked side by side with the leather experts to understand what makes sustainable leather truly work in real conditions.
Both sides say the work shows that high quality design and environmental responsibility can become the new standard for footwear.
This collaboration represents a shared step toward a future where sustainability, performance and human-centric design are not trade-offs, but the standard.
