The Real Leather. Stay Different. Competition Platform gives designers the opportunity to build a portfolio that has at its heart a project centred around sustainable education and design.

Thanks to our partner Arts Thread, when you create a profile on the Real Leather. Stay Different. Competition Platform, you will also have a profile created on the Arts Thread website, bringing the global creative industry to your door. It offers a stylish, individual online portfolio that truly promotes you – the graduate – to an international audience including industry moves and shakers. Its vast database of creative clients worldwide is looking for new graduates, interns and freelancers. 

You can also enter other exclusive competitions and read comprehensive practical how-to guides on careers, freelance and starting your own business.

Student Design Competitions:

Applications are open to students from art and design creative programs, currently studying at a higher education institution across the globe or recent graduates within one year.

Africa Leather Talent Design Showcase:

Emerging creatives are welcomed to enter the Showcase inclusive of students and those in employment within the following Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute [ALLPI]’s ten member states – Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Please use a personal email and not a university email address, as the university address will expire when you leave and also university servers might block your account confirmation email.

Please see below, a list of free services where you can sign up for a free email account which can be used to create a portfolio.

• Gmail
• Yahoo Mail
• Outlook.com
• AOL mail

The Real Leather. Stay Different. Design Competition confirmation email will arrive instantly. If it is not in your inbox, please check your junk folder. If it is not in your junk folder – please check your junk settings – is it set to delete junk instantly it arrives? If you are using an email service such as Mail or Entourage, please check the inbox and junk folder of the domain provider’s email account -again, please check these junk settings – is it set to delete spam instantly it arrives? Outlook: 1. Go to outlook.com and sign in with your Windows Live ID and Password. 2. Go to your Outlook Inbox. 3. On the left panel, click Junk.

Still having problems? Please contact us via [email protected]

Start with a short description of what you do and what you want from your career – and your vision for fashion’s future. Follow this with work experience and end with a brief education history.

To register, visit the homepage and click on the login tab located on the top right hand corner of the site to create an ‘Entry Account’. You will then be taken to your personal profile page where you can provide details about your college and course, your areas of study as well as add in your biography and photo – and make your profile live.

You will be able to create and edit your competition entries via your profile underneath the tab ‘Edit Entries’. Here, you can set up your entry and submit it for one of our many competitions. Your competition entries will automatically be shown on your public profile page once set to ‘display’.

Start with a brief summary of your project and the inspiration behind your design. Follow this with why your submission is original and innovative and end with why it will not only last, but be loved, for a lifetime.

You can upload as many images as you like.

We fully support 2-byte, 3-byte, and 4-byte Unicode characters, please check that your file names do not contain any brackets, accents or the following characters; (+, =, (, é etc) and that the files are one of the following formats:

• JPG
• PNG
• GIF
• WEBP
• SVG
• PDF

Video/Animation can be uploaded in MP4 format utilising H.246 Codec or WEBM format utilising VP8 or VP9 Codec.

Please ensure assets uploaded are up to 2000px for both height and width.

Still having problems? Please contact us via [email protected] – please include your Real Leather. Stay Different. Design Competition URL in the email.

You may have uploaded too small a file size, please try uploading your imagery at a larger resolution and ensure it has not been over compressed.

Yes, we do encourage users to update their personal profile as often as possible.

Add a link to your Real Leather. Stay Different. Design Competition profile from your own website or blog, Facebook page, Twitter page etc.

To vote users must register for a student account, Africa Showcase account or guest account.

Head over to the entries page on the platform, you can submit your vote by pressing the ‘VOTE NOW’ button within an individuals entry, located below the description.

Votes are limited to one per-competition, per-user.

Our platform does not allow for users to vote on their own project. This is to encourage voting for others.

Users can share their entry with their network via clicking the ‘Copy URL’ button for more votes and support.

The Real Leather. Stay Different. showcase is open to all designers, regardless of their level of experience or background, who are interested in creating innovative and sustainable leather products and who are living, studying, or working in any of ALLPI’s 10 member states, those are Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Designers are asked to enter a single item in one of three categories of their choice: clothing, shoes or accessories. Participants must be legal residents in one of the mentioned 10 African countries.

There are three categories for submissions, those are apparel, accessories, and footwear. Choose the category that best fits your design, and ensure that the design chosen meets the requirements of the competition. The design must be at least 50% cattle hide leather and any other materials used must be natural or organic materials where possible. We do not accept the use of fur or exotic skins such as, but not limited to; crocodile, snakeskin or any rare or endangered animal species. Plastics must only be used where no natural alternatives are available. The piece should be innovative and sustainable and capture one or more of the facets of leather, from beauty and versatility to strength and durability.

Entries should include a brief description of the item and its development in English, storyboards and design inspiration explaining how it was conceived and why it was made, sketches, flats, technical specifications, and final design and/or photography if the item is already produced (the item does not need to be physically made at this stage), a short video to introduce you and your design (this is optional but encouraged). You can submit your entry online through the Real Leather. Stay Different. Website (rlsd.internationaldesigncomp.com) before the deadline.

Showcase submissions open on 18 April 2023 and close on 15 July 2023. Any entries submitted after 15 July will not be accepted.

A Panel of expert curators chosen by Real Leather. Stay Different. will review the entries and select 15 of the best designers. These designers will be notified by email by 4 August 2023.

No, you can only submit one design in one of the three categories: clothing, shoes or accessories.

Yes, you will be able to make changes to your submission after it has been sent as long as it is before the deadline date.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to

[email protected] ,or, [email protected]

There is no fee to enter the competition.

There are three categories for submissions, those are apparel, accessories, and footwear. Choose the category that best fits your design. The design must be at least 50% cattle hide leather and any other materials used must be natural or organic materials where possible.

The ‘most commendable’ design will be selected by our panel of curators and the designer of this winning item will be invited to attend the International Student Design Competition final event in Milan, where their design will be part of a showcase of the best designs across all 2023 RLSD competitions.

Real Leather. Stay Different. Student Design Competition offers the opportunity to promote your own specific programs, showcasing your graduates’ entries to a global audience.

Any institution, around the world, which teaches visual art, design and creative media programs.

Simply Contact us to start the process – we can provide a mix of resources to provide additional information and materials for course leaders and lecturers and to promote to your students.

Any user with a browser that supports translation (either built-in or via a browser extension, such as this extension for chrome or this extension for firefox) should be able to get an approximate translation for the vast majority of text on the platform.