Can vegan leather be truly environmentally sustainable?

As man-made fabric technology becomes more mature, the performance of vegetarian innovative materials is also constantly improving. It is regarded by many brand companies as an important tool to promote the development of sustainable fashion because of its excellent properties equal to or even better than animal leather and its price advantage.

However, like all new things, before people discover their real value, they always need to be verified through continuous questioning and practice. The emerging textile material of vegan leather is also receiving extensive discussion. The focus of discussion is no more than whether vegan leather can be truly sustainable and environmentally friendly?

What is vegan leather?

In fact, most substitutes for animal materials such as artificial fur, artificial leather and artificial wool are still essentially synthetic fiber products, which are a type of plastic. Since the raw materials are all taken from coal, oil and limestone, the microplastics fall off frequently, and these fabrics are difficult to degrade, and they will also cause secondary damage to the environment when they are incinerated as waste.

Therefore, if you do not think from a humanitarian perspective, just from the perspective of sustainable development, animal materials are actually more environmentally friendly. But from an ethical point of view, vegan leather is about animal welfare. Many consumers today, especially the younger generation consumers, are very concerned about the industrial chain issues and animal exploitation issues behind leather products. After the epidemic, people's discussion on these issues has increased. The understanding of vegan leather is based on the "vegetarian" essence of "vegetarian", which is an artificial leather that bypasses animals and has the texture of animal leather.

Vegan leather has a highly consistent performance with animal leather

In his book Fashion Animals (2019), Joshua Katcher points out that vegan leather generally refers to materials that have the look, feel and performance of tanned animal leather and are used primarily in footwear, belts, bags and other leathers production of products. Its contents?include polyurethane microfiber suede, mycelium (mushroom root), leather grown by artificial reproduction of skin cells, coffee grounds, cactus, pineapple, embossed cork, and more.

“These companies that make vegan leather are getting a lot of market capital attention. I think there will be fully biodegradable, plant and cell based vegan leather that will be widely used in production in the next 5 to 10 years?and they will outperform traditional animal leathers in terms of performance,” says Joshua Katcher.

Innovative vegan leather

In fact, vegan leather is not a particularly new material in the field of textile materials. Up to now, artificial non-animal leather has become the material of choice for many middle and low-end leather products. It is low-cost, can be mass-produced, and has a texture that is very close to real leather.

Steven D. Lange, director of the Leather Research Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, explained: "The vast majority of artificial leather materials that are advertised as 'vegan' are plastic-based. Even though manufacturers use plant-based as raw materials, because of the use of adhesives , so these so-called vegan leathers are also harmful to the environment.”

Plastic-based vegan leather also has an environmental impact

Most artificial leathers on the market today often have a plastic surface made of polyurethane or polyvinyl chloride attached to a backing made of oily nylon, acrylic or polyester fabric. As consumers' awareness of environmental protection increases, they have gradually developed a resistance to this unenvironmental artificial leather. This has also led to the popularity of plant-based fibers such as apple, pineapple and cactus, which contain a small amount of plastic and cell-grown leather such as mycelial leather.

Among them, "mushroom leather" is regarded as one of the most potential vegan leather materials. It can grow into mycelium leather with animal leather form through mycelium without any animal participation. The Mylo mycelium leather, developed in 2018 by American biotech company Bolt Threads, is now used by brands such as Adidas and Lululemon. The material can be grown and harvested in less than two weeks. It is worth mentioning that although this Mylo mycelium leather has passed the bio-based certification, it is still non-biodegradable, plastic-free and non-toxic.

Dan Widmaier, founder and CEO of Bolt Threads?said: “Mylo leather can meet the needs of consumers and brands that want to meet ESG requirements.”

In March of this year, Hermès announced that it will cooperate with California mold products company MycoWorks to launch a mushroom skin Victoria travel bag made of "mushroom mycelium".

However, even with the endorsement of the head luxury brand Hermes, the main problem facing mycelium leather is that the production capacity cannot keep up with the demand. And this relative lag also provides a window period for more innovative companies to expand and innovate.

Leather goods startup Bellroy this month released a Mirum, a mini sling bag made from a new material, vegan leather. Made from a slurry of raw materials such as cork, coconut, vegetable oil and natural rubber, this vegan leather does not contain any polyurethane or PVC coatings, and is fully biodegradable with 40% lower carbon emissions than conventional leather. In addition to being low-carbon, Mirum does not use water in its manufacturing and dyeing processes.

Going mainstream with vegan leather

In the fashion world, conglomerates such as Stella McCartney, Adidas, Allbirds, Hermès, Gucci, H&M, Karl Lagerfeld, Reformation, Ralph Lauren and Fossil have all ventured into vegan leather by investing in or launching limited capsule collections.

According to estimates by Bengaluru-based technology solutions company Infinitum Global, the global synthetic leather market size was estimated at US$46.7 billion in 2020, and this figure is expected to grow to US$89.6 billion in the next five years, representing a CAGR of 48.1% .

The next generation of vegan leather alternatives could be worth $2.2 billion a year by 2026, according to a report released in June by the nonprofit The Material Innovation Initiative. The Ministry of Information Industry and the North Mountain Consulting Group, a consulting firm, also pointed out in a report on U.S. consumer spending habits that more than half of people prefer to buy leather alternatives made of acrylic, polyester, plant fibers or cell cultures. Taste. And what drives these consumers to buy vegan leather are: animal-friendly, affordable and attractive.

Emma Hakansson, founding director of Collective Fashion Justice, believes that as people become aware of the interconnected hazards caused by the supply chain of animal-derived materials, people will begin to appreciate the balance between the earth, humans and animals. And this will promote the development of vegan leather.

While vegan leather still has a lot to improve and innovate, it still has huge potential, especially for vegan-conscious consumers. As more and more vegan products and innovative companies join the vegan leather segment, more vegan leathers with both animal leather properties and sustainable development concepts are bound to appear in the future. It is worth mentioning that with millions of people worldwide working in the leather goods and footwear industry, producing billions of square feet of leather each year, increasingly environmentally friendly vegan leather will have an increasing impact on the global environment and human life. Clear and positive impact.