COMPARISON OF WATER PERMEABILITY AND WATER ABSORPTION PERFORMANCE OF SHOE UPPER LEATHERS

Abstract

Today, leather footwear is preferred for the comfort, convenience, and durability properties. In addition to these features, it is expected to have high water performance especially in winter and outdoor leather shoes. For this purpose, in the present study twenty–one shoe upper leathers differentiated in finishing techniques (finished, printed and patent) were investigated in terms of water performance tests such as dynamic water absorption/penetrometer (TS EN ISO 5403-1), static water absorption (TS EN ISO 2417) and water vapor permeability (TS EN ISO 14268). The upper leather samples, collected from different leather manufacturing plants in Turkey, were prepared and conditioned according to TS EN ISO 2419 standard prior to tests. The results revealed that patent leathers gave the highest penetrometer values compared to finished and printed shoe upper leathers. Besides, finished, and printed shoe upper leathers provided the highest water vapour permeability values compared to patent leathers. As a result, the sample of R gave a water vapor permeability value of 7500 mg/cm2.h along with the best penetrometer and static water absorption results. As a conclusion, the results obtained from the study would help in improving the quality standards of shoe upper leathers in terms of water performance tests and could show the current situation in the production of shoe upper leathers.

Keywords

• upper leather
• finishing techniques
• water vapour permeability
• water absorption
• penetrometer