An Overview Guide to Leather Grades
In the world of heritage/reproduction products with a focus on quality and sustainability, leather is right up there as one of the most commonly seen materials. Brands like Tanner Goods and Corter Leather champion hand-made goods that should last years and years. However, anyone looking to buy should be aware of what they’re paying for when it comes to leather products, and that means knowing at least a handful of the different grades of leather.
We’d like to set it straight for those confused by all the options out there. Although the below list does not include every last kind of leathers, it features the different quality grades every consumer should know before making a purchase.
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This keeps getting repeated here on Redit and all over the net, but it's absolutely not true, I buy over $100K worth of leather every year. I get swatches of tons of leathers almost everyday from suppliers. I get offered both great quality leathers (Horween and SB foot) and junk, never does a supplier (tannery or middle man) call what they are selling "Genuine." They use terms that actually describe the type of leather.
ReplyDeleteWe in the leather business use lots of terms that describe leather: Full grain, top grain, embossed, corrected grain, finished splits, veg-tan, tumbled, waxed, oiled, pullup, etc- NEVER does anyone I deal with say "Genuine" It's just too broad! Genuine just means real, If I were offered "genuine leather" for sale, I'd laugh; it'd be like going to a restaurant and being asked if I would like "real beef"- real beef what? Hamburger, steak, stewed, etc... ? This term is just not used.
The origin of why this post and the linked article call it a lesser grade is that many low-priced/low quality goods are stamped "genuine leather", it just means that it was once the skin of an animal, nothing more. Probably used because it is a labeling requirement for imported goods.
The actual "industry term" for what the article (probably) describes is "finished split", which itself isn't super descriptive, but broadly means any "split" or suede that's been finished to look like "smooth" top-grain leather. This is done either with a thick PU coating (PU split) or just a very heavy paint-like finish. Both don't hold up with day to day use.