MILAN – Iconic Italian luxury fashion house Ferragamo has announced a landmark progress for the global fashion industry: it has successfully mapped the country of origin for more than 80% of the leather used in its signature footwear and handbag lines, marking one of the most ambitious early moves toward full material traceability amid incoming European Union sustainability regulations.
The milestone, detailed in the brand’s 2025 sustainability report released on March 31, represents the first time Ferragamo has published formal traceability data for its core material – a particularly challenging resource to track compared to common textile fibers like cotton, according to industry experts. The development comes as a growing wave of EU sustainability legislation is ratcheting up pressure on all fashion brands to map every step of their supply chains, from raw material extraction to end-of-life product disposal.
A century-old family legacy of innovation
Founded in Florence in 1927 by Salvatore Ferragamo, who built his reputation as a shoemaker for A-list Hollywood stars including Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland after years working in the United States, the brand has long adapted to material constraints. During World War II, widespread leather shortages pushed the founder to experiment with unconventional alternatives, using wicker as a leather substitute and cork for shoe soles, notes James Ferragamo, the founder’s grandson and the brand’s current chief transformation and sustainability officer.
Today, leather goods and footwear remain Ferragamo’s core business, accounting for 86% of the company’s 2025 total sales of €976.5 million ($1.1 billion). The brand first launched its leather traceability pilot in 2024, starting with the calf leather used for its iconic Fiamma handbag, tracking the material all the way from cattle breeding to final product assembly.
Building traceability to meet upcoming regulatory demands
For 2025, Ferragamo partnered with its key strategic tanneries – which collectively supply 80% of the hides the brand purchases – to roll out the origin mapping project, relying on standardized supplier declarations to document where raw materials are sourced. Across all materials, including cotton, silk and nylon, 81% of Ferragamo’s inputs are already third-party certified under global sustainability standards. The vast majority of the brand’s traced leather originates in Europe, and the company’s approach has already brought it further along the compliance path than many peers in the luxury sector.
“Currently, there is no one-size-fits-all technological solution that can trace every single piece of leather all the way back to the individual birth farm of the cow,” explained Davide Triacca, Ferragamo’s sustainability director. “We achieved this result through a consistent, highly targeted effort, and today we can trace the origin of more than 80% of all the leather we source.”
James Ferragamo emphasized that leather, when sourced responsibly, can be a leading sustainable material for fashion. “Most of our partner tanneries already manage water use responsibly, maintain fair labor practices, audit their own upstream suppliers to avoid sourcing from regions impacted by deforestation, and adhere to strict standards for animal welfare and responsible cattle breeding,” he said.
Industry context: Traceability as the foundation of circular fashion
Sustainability experts frame traceability as the non-negotiable first step for the fashion industry as it adapts to the EU’s upcoming sweeping sustainability framework, which will eventually require brands to prove their products are sustainable across every stage of their lifecycle, with compliance phased in over the coming years. Full implementation of the new rules will eventually require the industry to shift to a fully circular economy, with mandates to extend product lifespans through repair services, improve end-of-life management via recycling and upcycling, and ban the destruction of unsold inventory for large companies generating more than €40 million in annual revenue.
“Traceability is an absolutely essential factor, but it is not the end goal on its own,” explained Francesca Rinaldi, a sustainability scholar at Milan’s Bocconi University and director of the Monitor for Circular Fashion. “It is the foundational requirement that makes broader sustainability and circularity practices possible. Any company that cannot trace its materials does not truly understand its own supply chain, and opens itself up to valid criticism of greenwashing.”
Experts note that Ferragamo’s country-level origin mapping is an early-stage milestone, not full chain-of-custody traceability that the EU may eventually require, and the bloc does not currently mandate leather traceability at all. Still, the move positions Ferragamo ahead of regulatory deadlines and industry trends.
Continuing experimentation for future sustainable materials
Ferragamo’s traceability project is just the latest step in the brand’s decade-plus work on sustainability, which has included annual sustainability reporting for more than 10 years and ongoing experimentation with alternative materials. Past innovations include a 2017 capsule collection using silky textiles derived from orange citrus fibers, the Nova men’s tote crafted from nylon made from castor oil rather than fossil fuels, and the Back to Earth collection, which features the brand’s popular Hug handbag dyed with plant-based vegetable dyes.
“Our research and development work is ongoing – it’s a constant process that never stops,” James Ferragamo said. “We are always testing new approaches and new materials, and not every experimental material will be ready for commercial release right away. But that doesn’t mean we stop experimenting.”