This Technical Specification specifies a method of determining the bagginess of leather together with its creep
and stress relaxation properties. It is applicable to all non-rigid leathers. e.g. shoe upper leather, upholstery
leather, leathergoods leather and apparel leather. Leather is a viscoelastic material and, upon removal of any
applied force, only a proportion of the extension observed is recovered. Even some time after removal of the
force there is some degree of permanent deformation which is known as the retained set or bagginess of the
leather. Due to the nature of the test method described below it is also possible to obtain a measure of the
creep and stress relaxation properties of leather. Although the creep index quoted is not obtained via the true
definition of creep, it will however provide a valuable comparative indication of this property in leather.