Leather and genuine leather: are they the same?
No, real leather and genuine leather are not often the same. With the advancement of technology and manufacturing processes, it has become difficult to distinguish between real and faux leather, especially if you don’t know what you are looking for. In this article, we will discuss the difference between different types of leather and explain various terms like genuine leather in the leather industry.
First, we will discuss the term genuine leather which is a highly mistaken term.
What does the term genuine leather actually mean?
The term genuine leather often confuses people into believing that it is the highest quality leather as it contains the word genuine which means real, pure, authentic, or true in English. On the other hand, genuine leather is not a subjective term but only a collective term used for all goods made out of animal hide irrespective of their quality and grade. It hasn’t always been deceiving as some websites say. Even products made out of top-end full-grain leather can be labeled with genuine leather.
Genuine leather simply means that the material contains some part of real leather. In fact, the term genuine leather doesn’t tell anything about the quality of leather, grade of leather, place of origin of skin, and not even the animal it is sourced from.
Use of genuine leather tags by the retail industry.
Nothing is misleading in the term genuine leather itself but the way it has been used in the retail industry is really deceiving as it is often used for split leather that has been extensively processed and sometimes for bi-cast leather which is as good as the imitation leather material. Bonded leather or bi-cast leather is only partially made out of leather and does not fall under the genuine leather category by any means.
Some expensive brands sometimes sell these cheap quality bonded and split leather products by branding them as genuine leather to sell them for a lot of money.
Different types of leather-
Real leather
Real leather is a strong, flexible, and durable natural material. Full grain and Top grain leathers are the ones you need if you are really looking for real leather. Full grain aniline leather is the highest quality leather which is most durable of all. Any other kind of leather is treated to varying extents, for instance, pigmented leather is heavily coated with protective films, and Nubuck leather is sanded down to get that nice velvety texture. However, these treatments are considered minor modifications which does not affect the durability much but when it comes to split and bonded leather, it’s a whole different story and that should not be labeled as genuine leather.
Faux leather
It is also called fake leather, as the name suggests it is not real leather. Faux leather is designed to resemble the texture and feel of real leather but faux leather is nowhere near the real leather when it comes to durability and quality.
Many fake leather manufacturers and retailers use deceiving terms to label their low-quality products made out of PU material which is as good as plastic. Instead of outright stating that it’s fake or faux they often use umbrella terms like:
PU material
Vegan leather
Polyurethane leather
Vegetarian leather
Imitation leather material
Ocean leather
Pleather
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading our article on Genuine leather.
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