About | Lason

The Company

We at Lasón believe a great product is made with unique leather that is genuine and with a personal touch.
We manufacture products that offer great value for money and we aim to exceed every client’s expectations in terms of comfort and durability Started in 1994 as a simple shoe factory, Lasón has grown into the business it is today, but it all could not have been possible without our staff.
Most of the personnel, some being part of the family for the last 21 years, are originally from Marble Hall and the surrounding community as we believe in giving back to the community by means of job creation and self empowerment.
That is why our products are so unique – they are made and motivated by our people with their passion captured in the products. That is in what we pride ourselves!
Do yourself a favour; next time you are in the Marble Hall area, a mere hour’s drive away from Bela-Bela or 160km away from Pretoria, come in for a tour through our factory.
Here you will meet our master leather tanners Lucas and Marcos, who are mainly responsible for overseeing the tanning and finishing process.

"Seder 2008 dra ek Lasón skoene, vanwee die kwaliteit en gemak dra ek niks anders nie." - Ds. Albert Venter ,

“Lasón products impressed me and I am happy to recommend them. They were comfortable from the word go and I was ‘sold’ on them after only one day”- Koos Barnard , Magnum Magazine May_11.
"Lasón het spesiaal vir my n paar stewels gemaak na die vorm van my gebreekte voet. So Moet n skoen mos sit!" - Gideon Cilliers , Brits

The Leather

Lasón is passionate about leather products and strive to constantly develop new products. Our goal is simple; we specialise in producing unique leather products made for the South African men and women.

The leather tanning processes is a process that takes 3 weeks from start to finish. There is an art to transform the leather from a stiff hard leather hide to something that is soft, with full body. It has taken us 8 years to perfect its process, to create good quality leather every time. The process is extremely sensitive to the correct water temperature, as well as to the speed and the duration of the drum rotation for every individual part of the process.

Different types of leather absorb these products in different ways. Every tanning facility uses different types of drums, made either out of steel or wood, with different suppliers of chemical ingredients. It is very rare to find a tannery that produces leather products such as footwear and travel bags from game hides, not just in South Africa but also worldwide.
Leather from Blue Wildebeest has been used in the making of our very unique and stylish Nyati travel bags. The game hides brings a different character to the products, and of course the spingbok is one of the softest leather skins by far.

Unique “Blue Wildebeest” Leather-Limited Range.
The unique leather product was developed from Southern African Blue Wildebeest hides. This large antelope has the great properties of strong and firm leather which is ideal for the manufacturing of leather belts and for our cell phone case ranges. The Blue Wildebeest has dark bands over its shoulders and flanks giving it a brindled appearance.
The Wildebeest, unique to Africa, has been selected by Lasón tannery to produce a unique leather to create a limited edition of products for our clients. This leather can easily be identified by the dimple veil character of the leather.

Our Process

It has taken us 8 years to perfect this process to ensure that every piece of leather is tanned as required! We are also one of the very few tanneries in the world where you would find leather footwear, belts and travel bags incorporated with leather from game hides.

Step 1 Leather Tanning

The tanning and conditioning of leather is a process that has to be handled with great care as leather reacts to elements such as water temperature and the speed of the tanning drums. At Lasón we have developed a tanning and conditioning process which is unique to our factory.

Step 2 Leather Finishing

The hides are now taken to a different drum called the mulling drum where it will soften a bit more. Afterwards the leather is sprayed with a protective sealant to ensure easy cleaning

Step 3 Splitting process

Now the leather is ready to become a product. The splitting process ensures the important uniform specified thickness. The leather is carefully selected and pressed into the needed parts. Grouped together the shoe parts are bagged for the specific product and sent towards the assembly area for further processing.

Step 4 Assembly

Now things get tight and the boot is formed, stitching takes place, rivets for extra strength are added and eyelids inserted. All other trims are added.

Step 5 Finishing

Once the shoe last is fastened to the insole, the leather upper is heated and fitted and left to cool down. The next day the finishing touches are done and the sole is attached and secured onto the boot.