In keeping with Japanese tradition, every day since it was founded, Showa has demonstrated increasing expertise as a manufacturer that is always searching for innovations, in order to offer the users of its gloves greater comfort.


INNOVATION

Before 1954, cotton and leather were the only options available in terms of hand protection. It was at this point that Showa introduced the first gloves made from flexible and durable PVC.
This major innovation enabled the company to quickly take 40% of the Japanese market.

Since then, many innovations have followed.
For the record, we will mention:
- The 1980’s:
Several patents are applied for: the liner’s anti-germ treatment, oil-resistant PVC, the slip-on treatment – making putting on and removing the gloves easier – resulting today in a range of PVC gloves whose comfort and durability mean it is still the benchmark.
At the same time, Showa develops seamless liner technology in order to apply it to its other work gloves.
- 1983: Showa devises the Soa Tech range of gloves, including the Palm Fit model, which is both light and supple and allows high-precision work to be carried out quickly and accurately, thus maximising productivity.
- 1990: A range of thin nitrile gloves is developed.
- 1993: Showa launches partial coating, resulting in a perfect compromise between comfort and dexterity. The Flat Dip Technology coating technique is born.
Since then, innovations have been made by applying hi-tech textiles such as Kevlar® and HPPE to gloves, meaning that once again, an important step has been taken towards greater safety.

Today, Showa offers a range of gloves that is suited to the most complex and dangerous operations and which offers a level of protection and cut resistance that is widely recognised by professionals.
Together, these innovations mean that Showa gloves constitute the benchmark for the market.
As soon as the company brings out innovations, they are copied, so essential do these suddenly appear to be.
With their seamless knit design, coated palm and ventilated back, Showa gloves are designed to limit perspiration. In addition they undergo an antibacterial treatment to reduce both the accumulation of bacteria and odours caused by perspiration.





RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Such a capacity for innovation is only possible by placing Research and Development at the core of the company plan. This is the case at Showa.

At its plant in Malaysia, which employs 1,500 people, Showa has the industry’s most advanced research laboratories at its disposal.
This research has just one goal: ensuring maximum protection (against injury, cuts and chemicals) and greater comfort for users.
This has led to a large number of patents, and Showa’s revolutionary technology has resulted in the manufacture of gloves that offer ever-greater protection, and which allow the tasks they have been created for to be carried out more effectively.





THE ENVIRONMENT

The latest challenge Showa has set itself concerns the protection of the environment.
This means implementing increasingly thorough quality control, before, during and after production. With its objective of “zero defects” in mind, Showa chooses only high quality raw materials, while making sure that they will harm neither the environment nor the user’s hands.

Because it is conscious of the fact that the world has limited natural resources, Showa is developing a recycling programme for production materials, for instance.
“We live in a wonderful world and we must be ever-conscious of this in order to preserve it”. This is a phrase often heard in the Malaysian plant.
Showa would like to leave the world clean for our children, and has made this a duty for its employees.

Innovation, research and development, preservation of the environment, these are three factors that make Showa one of the global market leaders.

Although it is already present all over the world, Showa is now increasing its commercial development in Europe. This is its priority. Since it was created in 2000, the subsidiary Showa Europe has encountered great success: many prestigious customers have very quickly decided to call upon its products, in recognition of their quality. To be noted, in particular, are: the automotive, aeronautical, electronics and metallurgical industries, as well as building and public works, agriculture, etc…