The event will take place in Lyon, France, from 8-11 September 2025. The theme will be ‘Beyond leather tradition, innovation and sustainability’.
The IULTCS’s previous congresses have taken place in 20 different countries on five continents, with the most recent being held in Chengdu, China in 2023.
In the opening to that event, Yuzhong Li, then vice president of the China National Light Industry Council, chairman of the China Leather Industry Association, and president of the Organizing Committee of the Congress, pointed out that the leather industry must address the contemporary issue of how to achieve industrial modernisation through technological innovation and collaboration. Faced with changing consumer preferences and the rapid development of synthetic materials, the global leather industry must seize the key variable of technological innovation and strengthen international cooperation.
Meanwhile, Joan Carles Castell, at that time the IULTCS vice president, spoke about the key objectives of the IULTCS, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the responsible use of resources within the leather industry.
The IULTCS is a world-wide organisation of professional societies. There are currently 19 member societies and six associate members representing some 3,000 individual members.
According to the IULTCS statutes its aims are to foster cooperation between member societies, to hold congresses to further the advancement of leather science and technology, to form commissions for special studies and to establish international methods of samples and testing leather and materials associated with leather manufacture.
