Now, fish-skin footwear

FISH skin is set to grace your footwear, all thanks to students at Kolkata’s Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology.

The students have successfully processed fish skin and scales, otherwise considered to be waste material, to make shoes, wallets, bags and belts. Big-ticket and ritzy snake and reptile skin boots and bags are pass. For, Haute-couture designers are swearing by fish skin. They claim that fish skin is soft, has versatility and is beautiful to look at.

"The price would be very low. It is a waste otherwise. We discard it while cooking. Bengalis, Chinese and Japanese eat a lot of fish. If the raw material is waste material then the product cannot be expensive," said Buddhadeb Sinha, a professor at the college.

The use of fish skin in items of fashion is a part of the students’ training course. The students have modified the procedure of tanning commonly used in processing other types of leather, including goat or cow skin.

Pre-tanning of leather generally includes use of harmful sodium sulphide, which when submerged in soil reduces its fertility, and chromium, which is hazardous for all the living beings.

Fish-skin and scales come across as an eco-friendly product, which have an appearance as that of snakeskin and properties such as a tensile strength of 200 kg per centimetre square — defining good leather.

"The availability of raw stock or fish skin is easily available because this is a waste. We want to convert waste into wealth and have already done so," said Sandip Das, a student.

In addition to this, the students have tied up with BENFISH — a West Bengal Government’s fisheries project, which will supply the raw material and provide for the land to carry out this project. The students plan to increase the size of fish scales with hybridisation in the near future. — ANI

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