Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Open Access Master's Report

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Chang Kyoung Choi

Committee Member 1

Trisha Sain

Committee Member 2

Sangyoon Han

Abstract

Leather is one of the commonly worn fashion attires and accessories in the United States. But, despite the prevalence of leather fashion in the United States, the annual revenue of the leather industry has been decreasing steadily over the years. The purpose of this report is to investigate and discuss the probable reasons for the steady decline in the revenue. The U.S. government, after investigating the negative impact of the conventional leather manufacturing process, passed some environmental guidelines and regulations over the years. We will also discuss how these environmental regulations have been affecting the natural leather industry and also the probable measures taken by the government to stabilize the declining revenue. Synthetic leather, which is an emerging market and an eco-friendly alternative to natural leather is explained. The future trends in both the natural leather and synthetic leather industry are briefly elucidated in this report

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