Did you know an enourmous portion of leather products are made of a scam material called "genuine" leather.
Genuine leather is a term that’s intentionally misleading to make you think you’re buying real quality leather. The truth is it's the lowest grade brands can get away with.
A lot of the strength of leather comes from the top epidermal layer of the skin and leather that has this top layer is what we call "full grain." Genuine leather is one of the weakest part of the hide and is a lot closer to being flesh.
To make genuine leather, whatever is left over after splitting away the full-grain gets sanded down and usually a few of these layers get bonded together, then coated in literal plastic and stamped with a fake leather pattern to appear more natural.
It's designed to look good in website photos and out of the box, but falls apart after a few months.
What's crazy is that it's not just sold by fast fashion brands on Temu. Well-established, trustworthy brands are often just as guilty of selling genuine leather products, except at an even higher price.
If you want to make sure the leather you're buying is quality, look for full-grain. It's the thickest part of the hide and lasts decades. Instead of peeling and cracking, it gets better with age.
It's what we use for the belts we make because we wanted a product you only buy once, instead of wasting money replacing it every year or so. We even added a lifetime warranty to prove it.