Celebrities and the ultra-rich always enjoy wearing a bit of snakeskin, but the high-end skins are having such a fashion moment that the company that provides python skin to Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent has opened its very own python-breeding farm right here in Thailand.
It’s no surprise when you think of the profitability of snakeskin items. A pair of sneakers made of the precious skin can go for THB37,000. Although, many might argue, the skin looks much better on the animal for which it was created.
According to Kering, the company that opened the farm, the pythons will be treated as well as possible. You know, “before they are turned into shoes, bags and belts,” as The Guardian so aptly pointed out.
Since baby pythons take about three years to mature, the company said that the new farm would start producing a large number of skins for the fashion industry in 2020.
There are many farms producing snakeskin in Asia, but these legal businesses are also used as a front for the illegal capture and sale of wild pythons from Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos.
Some believe that the majority of the skins sold as farmed are actually illegally caught wild snakeskins. In 2016, Chinese officials made a significant bust when they seized 68,000 illegal skins suspected to be from Vietnam and worth THB1.7 billion.
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