Genuine Leather: Is it really the best leather?

Looking beyond the 'Genuine Leather' branding and digging deeper into what it all means...

Leather is one of the most beautiful natural materials and man’s love affair with leather has continued through the ages. Leather connoisseurs are fascinated with leather and take pride in owning high quality leather goods. But if you are new to the world of leather, buying leather goods can feel like tossing a coin. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

What is Full Grain Leather? What is Genuine Leather? There are so many different types of leather and their grades that it can get quite confusing while making a buying decision!

What is the 'GENUINE LEATHER' Tag? 

Do NOT be reassured by the simple presence of this tag! In short, this tag only tells you that the product is made partly or fully with natural animal hide.

The long answer follows: the 'Genuine Leather' tag, assures you that the product contains genuine leather. So, isn’t that good enough? Ask any good leather craftsperson worth his/her salt, or a true blue leather aficionado, and the answer will be a resounding “No!”. 

The ‘Genuine Leather’ tag is a grossly misused term by the retail industry.

And that is why, when you buy a genuine leather item, even from a reputed brand, sometimes it fails you. This 'Genuine Leather' tag never tells you whether the leather used is of an inferior or superior grade.Yes, there are grades of leather! Not all leathers are strong and long lasting!

Imagine you step into a leather goods store selling 'Genuine Leather' goods. If they use cheap, low quality leather, then they can sell you wallets and bags at bargain prices, and you will buy a product that probably won't last you more than 1-2 years. 

As you get to read more and more about good leather, you will notice that most brands or stores will not tell you which animal the leather came from. They will not be able to tell you how thick the leather is. The Genuine Leather tag also cannot provide any information on the source of the leather - whether it is cruelty-free, or sustainable.... I think you get my drift here.

Rewind to a couple of decades ago. 'Genuine Leather' didn’t always have such a bad reputation. It genuinely signified a mark of authenticity and high quality. So what changed?

Over the past two decades, our consumption of leather goods (and stuff, in general) increased many-fold.

The demand for leather rose. Cost took precedence over quality and the most heavily discounted products sold the fastest. In this world of instant gratification and ‘value’ for money, most 'real' leather goods started being made with the lowest grade of leather (split leather), and that too, with poor production techniques.

As more and more cheap leather goods have started flooding the market, the label ‘genuine leather’ has become diluted over the years.

Today, if you are looking for authentic high quality leather that ages really well, you should run far away from a product with only a ‘genuine leather’ tag. 9 times out of 10, such products are made with split leather, the cheapest real leather in terms of quality and price. What you need to be looking for is full grain leather or corrected grain leather. Less than 10% of leather goods worldwide are made using these grades of leather. That should give you a hint about their exclusivity. They can seem expensive in the short term, but they will stay unfailingly by your side for decades.

UNDERSTANDING GRADES OF LEATHER

To know the difference between quality leather and the rest, let’s dive a bit deeper. There are two basic grades of leather — full grain leather and split leather — irrespective of which animal the hide comes from.

Both grades come from the exact same hide. What differentiated these two grades is what section of the hide the leather is made from. Tanning — the process of converting a hide into leather — also matters, but we will talk about that in another post. One thing at a time!

This picture shows a beautiful leather hide, full processed and tanned. The smooth side of the hide is called 'grain'. It is one one of the hides from our inventory, North-American origin, 6–8 mm thick. That’s really thick! No dyes or pigments have been applied on it. Look at how rich and heavy it looks. 

Take a closer look at this closeup view of the hide (below). You will see three distinct layers — the grain, the corium and the flesh. The topmost layer (grain) is the cream of the crop. This is the strongest, most beautiful section of the hide. Notice all the tiny pores on this layer. Also notice the tight, inter-twined fibrous ‘corium’, and the last of all, the thinnest section — the flesh. As you go from the grain towards the flesh, the intertwined fibres start thinning. The densely packed fibres give strength to the leather.

WHAT IS FULL-GRAIN LEATHER?

Full grain leather includes the ‘Grain’ and the Corium. This Grain is what imparts strength, beauty and character to leather. Full grain leather is used to make very long lasting, very sought-after leather products. 

So, that's it? The only distinguishing feature of full grain leather is the presence of the 'grain'? The answer is, Yes! There is nothing fancy or complicated about a full grain leather hide. It is the least-processed, most natural form, and yet it is the least commonly available and the most expensive form of leather.

The main characteristic of full grain leather is that you can see unique markings; no two hides are the same. On most hides, there may be little scars, insect bites and folds in the skin acquired by an animal over its lifetime.

We believe they tell a unique story about each piece we make. More importantly, in most cases, these markings do not in anyway impact the durability of the leather goods.

WHAT IS SPLIT LEATHER?

A thick leather hide is 'split' into multiple layers after putting to use the topmost layer with the grain. When a full grain leather hide is used to make, for example, a sturdy field belt measuring 8 mm thick, the entire thickness of the hide is used up. But for most other leather items such as wallets and bags, the entire thickness of leather is never used. Take a look at the picture below. This picture shows a thick strip of leather - this comes from the flesh side of the hide - after the grain has been separated away.