Men and women are purchasing more leather items than ever before. The range of items includes purses, bags, belts and protective covers for tablets and smartphones. Designers typically use product differentiation to attract people’s interest. Not only aiming for that ‘one time’ purchase, but to create loyal consumers who become brand ambassadors.
One of the new design trends in leather items is the use of colored edge paint. A technology used primarily to coordinate clothes and accessories, such as sunglasses and watches, in order to make a fashion statement. Older edge paint technology has been known to fail under adverse conditions, leading to quality issues such as cracking, peeling and color migration. To prevent consumer dissatisfaction and possible claims, the leading European luxury brands wanted to raise the level of product quality of edge paint.
To find a solution for the luxury European brands’ needs, we set up a dedicated edge paint R&D team in the French town of Graulhet. The team came up with a brand-new edge paint range, using Stahl’s latest resin technology as building blocks. The reviews and tests of leading European brands were very positive, which led us to market our high performance edge paint technology.
Thanks to its success, we have decided to continue investing in our new edge paint technology, focusing on superior color matching, bottling and product quality. Our Graulhet site in France now serves as the edge paint center for product development and manufacturing, and ships to locations in Europe and beyond.