Patents and a Bit of Fun!!!!!!

Just to start on the lighter side of things for the weekend, I recommend a visit to www.xtranormal.com to make some fun movies. Very easy to use and publish!!!!!

It's interesting that still the simple things in life are great...... even if that means in this day and age that someone else has done all the hard work behind the scenes.

I'm off to Europe for a few weeks now to organise 12 new innovations for Nomis. But I was yet again amazed today to read some new patents, allied with the footwear and leather industry, that have just been passed which to me are truly a representation of what rubbish you can get away with. There is still the two criteria for patents, well there are in my book, in that a patent should be awarded to a novel solution to a problem or issue, and that it is 'non-obvious'. This last aspect is commonly forgotten, and the one that can be argued upon best of all. What may be obvious to me may not be obvious to someone else, but surely there has to be some sense of reality in that!!!!!! Then there is the whole saga of 'first to invent' and 'first to file' aspects which have differing priorities in different countries. No wonder legal lawyers are so rich these days!!!!!

Regards,

Dr Leather

Smelly boots!!!!!!!!

More and more these days I hear of very negative comments relating to athletic footwear and soccer boots that quickly get an issue with becoming very smelly. This is most likely caused by an issue relating to micro-organisms that have decided to set up home in your shoe or boot, and consequently a rather unsavory odour is generated. And smell is only one aspect of this..... foot health relating to possible infection with micro-organisms, bacteria, fungus, etc is also a possibility.

In my experience the synthetic shoes and boots tend to be far worse for this issue than leather footwear, primarily linked to the synthetics having significantly reduced breathability characteristics. Leather typically has a better fibre structure that can breathe and 'wick away' the moisture/sweat. But it is also strongly related to the other components in the footwear and how they handle moisture and potential microbial growth. And in honesty there is a great deal that can be done to alleviate these problems, but are often overlooked due to the additional cost.

So the question for today is just how much does smelly footwear annoy you guys, the consumers/users. Is it a 'nice to have' or a 'necessity' to have footwear that does not become smelly???

Looking forwards to your answers. Best wishes,

Dr Leather