Certification according to OEKO-TEX® LEATHER STANDARD

OEKO-TEX® LEATHER STANDARD is a standardised worldwide testing and certification system for leather and leather items from all stages of production. This includes semi-finished products (wet-blue, wet-white, crust) up to finished products. You can certify finished leather, leather fibre materials, ready-made articles, accessories, leather gloves, leather bags, leather covers and more in accordance with LEATHER STANDARD. We do not certify leather materials from exotic animals such as crocodiles, snakes, and armadillos.

• Use the independent testing of your products by the world-leading OEKO-TEX® institutes as a strong, trust-building action for your company.
• We can help you to comply with national and international statutory regulations, which are sometimes very different. As a consistent and scientifically founded standard, the OEKO-TEX® criteria catalogue is used to assess critical substances in leather articles.
• Save cash: we offer you practical assistance for your operational quality assurance so there is no need for you to provide your own resources yourself.
• The costs for a certification according to LEATHER STANDARD are distributed equally over all participating production levels using a modular system. As we recognise certificates from every stage of leather production, you only pay for your share of the test cost.
• Open up new customer potentials: retail chains, discounters and wholesalers structure their delivery conditions on the basis of the LEATHER STANDARD and the RSL list contained therein. This saves you additional time-consuming reconciliation processes.
• Showcase your company and your certified product range free of charge in the OEKO-TEX® Buying Guide on our website.

For successful certification, different components of an article must meet the required criteria. For testing textile and non-textile components of a leather article (sewing thread, buttons, zip fasteners, linings, inserts, prints, labels etc.), we use the current OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100. Leather materials must meet the criteria of the current LEATHER STANDARD. This also includes operational quality assurance measures in your company aimed at compliance with the required criteria. If you pass the quality audit carried out by an independent OEKO-TEX® partner institute before or shortly after certification and have signed the General Terms of Use (GTU), nothing stands in the way of your certification.

The criteria catalogue, which is based on international test standards and other recognised test processes, includes around 100 test parameters and is equally binding for all authorised OEKO-TEX® partner institutes. The measures and limit values contained therein are much more stringent than the valid national and international specifications and include:

• important statutory regulations such as, for example, banned AZO colouring agents, chromium (VI), PFOS, lead (US-CPSIA) etc.
• requirements of annexes XVII and XIV of the REACH regulation and the ECHA SVHC Candidate List
• numerous chemicals that are harmful to health, even if they have not yet been legally regulated
• numerous environmentally relevant substance classes

The more intensively an article comes into contact with the skin, the stricter the human-ecological requirements that it must fulfil. LEATHER STANDARD identifies four product classes:

Product class 1: Articles for babies and children up to 3 years of age
Product class 2: Articles used close to the skin
Product class 3: Articles used away from the skin
Product class 4: Decorative materials

A special regulation within the LEATHER STANDARD only permits the certification of the following skins:

• sheepskin
• lambskin
• goatskin
• cattle and cowhide
• calfskin
• horse leather

For components of an article that are made of textile or metal fabrics, not of leather, the conditions of the current STANDARD 100 are applied.

Chemicals, auxiliaries and colourants are tested and certified in accordance with ECO PASSPORT by OEKO-TEX®, not the LEATHER STANDARD.

1. Complete the application form and accept the General Terms of Use (GTU).
2. The selected OEKO-TEX® partner institute will contact you.
3. The institute examines the documents and sample materials submitted, defines the scope of the tests and the required parameters and then tests your articles.
4. If the laboratory test is completed successfully and all necessary documents are present, you will receive the LEATHER STANDARD certificate from your OEKO-TEX® Institute together with a detailed test report.
5. One of our OEKO-TEX® experts will visit you in your production facility before or shortly after certification to check your provided information.