Man has been tanning the hides of animals for about 9,000 years. Oliver Sweeney uses a network of high-class suppliers from around the world to source the many hides that used in its fine boots, shoes and accessories.




This is just part of the leather store at Oliver Sweeney’s factory in Italy. There is a bewildering range of qualities of leather, from fine, supple calf for uppers to strong, hard-wearing cow hide for robust soles. If tanning is largely a science, selecting the right leather for the right footwear is an art.

Exotic skins such as lizard, snake, ostrich and eel are sourced by Oliver Sweeney from responsible suppliers worldwide. Some, like eel, are by-products of the human food industry. Others, like alligator, are farmed commercially.



Stingray has been seen in the Oliver Sweeney range for many years. It is actually a by-product of the food industry, the processed skin of a flat fish consumed in large quantities in the Far East. It makes extraordinary leather that was tough enough to be used by the Samurai as armour and requires great skill to work with it. It has a fascinating “handle” or touch and Oliver Sweeney uses it for accessories like wallets, belts and even decoration on cufflinks. Stingray is also known as shagreen.

Tanning preserves the skin; dyeing gives it the superb range of colours that are an Oliver Sweeney trademark. Few other men’s footwear brands are confident enough to offer as many strong colours.
Oliver Sweeney’s tanners use mimosa bark in the tanning process – this is known as vegetable-dye. Skins are natural products and have natural blemishes and natural characteristics. It takes years of experience to determine which skin will be best for a particular style of shoe or accessory product.
Our high standards mean that there is up to 20% wastage of leathers in the shoe-making process. It takes several skins of some small animals to provide all the elements for a shoe. It takes three iguana skins, for example, to make one pair of shoes. A calf skin, conversely, could provide leather for four pairs.




Some large cattle hides are so thick that they are split horizontally to make them useable. The inner surface of a hide – the one that lay next to the beast’s body – can be brushed and napped to form suede.



The raised scales of the ray are shaved down to create the unmistakeable pattern of this fascinating leather.

Decorative pieces, as are found on a brogue, have to be cut individually and by hand from these small card patterns. The grain and “stretch” of the leather has to be taken into account when the patterns are positioned.



The thick hides from large cattle are typically used for soles. For speed and accuracy, the soles are cut using precision die presses.

There are many elements in even a simple Oliver Sweeney shoe; each component has to be carefully made to perform the job it needs to do. That is why we work only with the best specialists in their fields, from selecting our raw materials to choosing our manufacturing partners.
Our sole manufacturer keeps dozens of qualities of hide in its store. Each will be suitable for a particular type of shoe or boot. Incredibly, there are about 30 processes required to make an Oliver Sweeney sole.

We colour our soles black to achieve our trademark look.



The painted black sole is complemented by the lime green flash to form the instantly recognisable underside of an Oliver Sweeney classic.  Die presses cut out the pieces of leather that will form the famous lime green flash.