Good Leather Doesn't Hide!

Capitalizing on an art form implies slowly but surely losing its essence. And with leather, the situation is much the same. When we go shopping for a leather wallet, bag, or shoes, we're bombarded with the label 'Genuine Leather'. What makes the situation peculiar is the varied price points at which brands offer relatively similar products.?

With his family in the tanning business, his deep love for the art form got him to start creating awareness among people to shop for better leather products. He wants to promote leather from brands and spaces that, one, respect the process of creating quality leather products and, two, don't lie to or mislead their customers while staying on the right side of the law.

The label 'genuine leather' is more often than not misused by brands to cover up the fact that while most of the fibers in that product are leather, it is of the poorest grade with a thick plastic coat to make it look appealing. Even expensive luxury brands are so bent on keeping up brand standards and having homogenous finishes on their products that the tanning, dyeing, and coating done on the leather renders it pitiable.?

But we're not entirely doomed. Local artisans still have our backs! And, sometimes, brands can surprise us too. Tanner gives us the lowdown on everything a consumer needs to know — from the acquisition and tanning process to the best brands to shop leather from, taking care of the product, and a fool-proof four-step way to tell if your leather is "the sirloin or the hotdog" of leathers!

How do they do it, and what does that label mean? On this episode of 'A Niche Thing' with Aneesh Bhasin, Tanner Leatherstein tells us everything we need to know for the next time we go shopping for a leather product.?