Abstract: As the main material for shoes and leather goods, leather is widely used and recognized by consumers because of its good sensory and performance characteristics. Nowadays consumers pay more and more attention to the health and environmental protection of the products they used. The odour of leather goods and the raw material used has gradually attracted the attention of consumers and quality supervisors. However, at present, the subjective evaluation method is the main method for the detection of different odour of leather, and there is no relevant certified reference material. In this paper, the main sources of leather odour, influencing factors and research progress of detection methods were summarized, and the preliminary proposal of certified reference material on odour of leather was presented, which provides suggestions for odour detection of leather, shoes and other field.