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The manufacture of iconic “made in the USA” cowboy boots is set to suffer from President Donald Trump’s 30-percent tariffs on South African exports that came into force in August.

Texas’s most renowned makers of the southern US fashion staple source the ostrich leather they require exclusively from the small South African town of Oudtshoorn, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Cape Town.

Known as the world’s “ostrich capital”, Oudtshoorn is nestled in the semi-arid Little Karoo valley just inland from the southern coast and is home to a few hundred thousand people and about as many of the giant flightless birds.

“We just don’t know how bad the impact will be, but positive it wouldn’t be,” said ostrich farmer Laubscher Coetzee of the tariffs that kicked in after South Africa appeared unable to negotiate a new trade deal with Trump.

More than half of the global supply of ostrich-derived products — from feathers to leather and meat — comes from nearly 200 farmers around Oudtshoorn who are joined in the Cape Karoo International (CKI) group, said its managing director Francois de Wet.

South Africa as a whole supplies about 70 percent of the world’s production, he said.

Luxury handbag manufacturers in France and Italy are among the CKI’s main clients. It also ships 20 percent of its ostrich leather to top Texas bootmakers such as Lucchese, Justin and Rios of Mercedes, whose boots are sold at several hundreds of dollars a pair.

Ostrich is “an extremely important leather in our industry”, Ryan Vaughan, CEO of the Rios of Mercedes manufacturer, told AFP.

“It’s very resilient, it forms to the foot,” he said, wearing a typical cowboy hat. Coming from “a long line of cattle ranchers”, his family brand was born in Texas in 1853 and employs 250 people.

The tariffs “would make a dramatic impact in our business and in the western industry,” he said, “because it’s not just us that build a lot of cowboy boots out of ostrich leather”.

It is also the case of Tony Lama, an El Paso bootmaker supplied by CKI that has given a pair to every recent Republican president. Donald Trump received cowboy boots emblazoned with “MAGA” made out of “American alligator” skin, according to a press release.

De Wet from the CKI said he believed the South African supply of ostrich leather to the US manufacturers did not run counter to a push by the Trump administration for production to be brought home.

The United States did not have enough ostriches to provide the required leather, he said.

“We export the raw material, the ostrich leather. They can’t produce it from local ostriches in the US. They don’t have them,” he told AFP.

“They do all the value-adding in the United States,” he said. “So therefore, in terms of the pure definition of what the Trump administration would like to see, in this case, we do it already.”

The soft skins, recognisable by spots left by the large ostrich feathers, are currently sold to American manufacturers for around $20 a square foot.

“We exported more than the usual volume of ostrich leather to the US in the past two-three months, so we have a little bit of a buffer,” said de Wet.

“For the moment we don’t expect any layoffs in the short term,” he said. But “in the long term, if we have to pick up the full tariff, it will definitely… cause a shrinkage of our business.”

The consumer could also not be expected to pay an extra 30 percent for the already pricey boots, he said.

“So the tariff will have to be split between the exporter… and the importer, and preferably also a part paid by the end consumer.”

It is the unique climate of the Little Karoo, which gets less than 400 millimetres (nearly 16 inches) of rain a year, that makes it ideal for ostrich rearing, said Coetzee, a fourth-generation Oudtshoorn farmer.

“That is the reason the ostrich industry is still here 200 years after (it started),” he said.

His great-grandfather built the family home in 1896, when the price of ostrich feathers rivalled that of gold because of their value to the women’s fashion industry.

The extravagant “ostrich palaces” of the time are a reminder of the industry’s previous major crisis, when the market collapsed in the early 1900s as the arrival of the low-roofed motor car ended the fashion for high-feathered hats.

Long-term guselkumab use may improve skin symptoms, sexual impairment issues, and feelings of stigmatization in those with psoriasis, new data suggest.¹

These findings from the G-EPOSS study were recently published in the Journal of Dermatology and authored by such investigators as Sascha Gerdes, MD, of the Department of Dermatology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel in Germany. Gerdes and colleagues highlighted that issues related to sexual impairment can be experienced by more than half of all patients with psoriasis, especially those with anogenital psoriasis.²

Additionally, the investigative team noted that perceived stigmatization is often experienced by an even greater number of patients, in turn exacerbating mental health issues and decreasing well-being.³

“The G-EPOSS study aims to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of guselkumab for improving psoriasis, HRQoL, sexual impairment, and perceived stigmatization outcomes in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in routine clinical practice,” Gerdes and coauthors wrote.^1,4 “Primary endpoint findings were previously published; here, we present key secondary endpoints from the final week (W)76 data cut, reporting outcomes across diverse patient subgroups.”

G-EPOSS Trial Design

The investigative team highlighted the design of G-EPOSS, noting that the study was an observational, prospective, multi-center investigation carried out in Germany. The team focused their attention on adult patients living with with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Those deemed eligible to participate in G-EPOSS had a confirmed diagnosis of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis with a baseline Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score above 3, were at least 18 years of age, and were considered appropriate candidates for systemic medications.

The implementation among these patients of non-biologic concomitant psoriasis drugs was permitted by Gerdes et al in accordance with routine clinical practice. The investigators’ patient recruitment period took place between October 2019 – August 2021 across 44 study sites. Those involved as participants were then treated with guselkumab 100 mg at the point of baseline, the 4-week mark, and subsequently every 8 weeks until the 76-week mark. This was noted as consistent with local clinical practice and guidelines for prescribing.

Gerdes and coauthors’ primary endpoint was determined to be attainment of PASI ≤3 at Week 28, and such results were reported previously.⁴ Over the course of the full 76-week treatment period, the investigative team looked at such secondary endpoints as Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Nail Psoriasis Severity Index (NAPSI) scores, anogenital Physician’s Global Assessment (aPGA), Relationship and Sexuality Scale (RSS), Patient Benefit Index (PBI), the results of the Perceived Stigmatization Questionnaire (PSQ), and rates of drug survival.

The team conducted their analyses among those in the overall cohort and in subgroups. These subgroups were defined by patients’ ages, body mass index (BMI), duration of disease, presence of anogenital psoriasis, sex, depression, and attainment of “super-responder” status. The latter group’s status was defined as PASI = 0 at both the 20 and 28-week marks.

Guselkumab Effects on Psoriasis

There were 295 patients included in the final analysis. Gerges and colleagues highlighted that at baseline, trial subjects’ mean disease duration had been 17.4 years and their mean PASI and aPGA scores were 15.3 and 2.7, respectively. In terms of prior biologic exposure, it had been observed among 26.4% of the G-EPOSS participants. At the 76-week mark, the team found that 87.5% of subjects reported PASI ≤3, and 47.3% achieved complete clearance (PASI = 0).¹

The investigators noted a substantial increase in response rates among trial participants showing a shorter duration of their disease. Overall, Gerdes et al found that 18.3% of the subjects met the aforementioned criteria for super-response. In those who entered the analysis with nail involvement (NAPSI ≥1) or anogenital disease (aPGA ≥1), complete clearance was seen in 52.2% (NAPSI = 0) and 75.8% (aPGA = 0) by the 76-week mark, respectively.

Complete clearance of psoriasis in the anogenital region (aPGA = 0) was found by the investigators to be consistently high across all of the BMI categories. The team also noted significant improvements across all of the patient-reported outcomes they had assessed (DLQI, RSS, PSQ), and these benefits extended across each of the subgroups. Those with shorter psoriasis duration tended to report having greater improvement in some measures. 88.1% of subjects at Week 76 showed a PBI of >3, and treatment persistence was estimated at 88.7%. Notably, Gerdes and coauthors found no new safety concerns were during G-EPOSS.

“The findings emphasize the importance of involving the patient’s view and considering sensitive topics not always openly communicated by patients,” the investigators concluded.¹ “In summary, a holistic view of patients and their treatments is important for optimal care; G-EPOSS supports findings that guselkumab not only addresses physical symptoms but also improves overall patient wellbeing.”

References

1. S Gerdes, P Weisenseel, D Groß, et al. “Long-Term Impact of Guselkumab on Skin, Sexuality, and Perceived Stigmatization in Patients With Psoriasis in Routine Clinical Practice: Week 76 Effectiveness and Safety Results From the Prospective German Multicenter G-EPOSS Study,” The Journal of Dermatology (2025): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1111/1346-8138.17866.

2. JC Cather, C Ryan, K Meeuwis, et al. “Patients’ Perspectives on the Impact of Genital Psoriasis: A Qualitative Study,” Dermatology and Therapy 7 (2017): 447–461.

3. A Chen, KM Beck, E Tan, J Koo. “Stigmatization in Psoriasis,” Journal Psoriatic Arthritis 3 (2018): 100–106.

4. S Gerdes, R Ostendorf, A Suss, et al. “Effectiveness, Safety and Impact of Guselkumab on Sexuality and Perceived Stigmatization in Patients With Psoriasis in Routine Clinical Practice: Week 28 Results From the Prospective German Multicentre G-EPOSS Study,” Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology 39 Suppl 1 (2024): 15–26.