‘We sell only genuine leather products’ that’s how most of the leather goods brands lure buyers. We see a tag saying ‘Made of Genuine Leather’ and blindly believe it to be the purest leather ever. If you are into leather only then you can tell that the product is made partly or fully with natural animal hide. Genuine Leather in the layman’s language is the lowest form of leather.
If someone tells sells you a product with the tag 'Genuine Leather' I do not assure you that the product contains 100% pure leather. A passionate leathercraft person will never ever use Genuine Leather in his masterpiece.
At times even big brands sell Genuine Leather items which die of in a matter of 3-4 years. This 'Genuine Leather' tag never tells you whether the leather used is of an inferior or superior grade. You should know that there are grades of leather! Not all leathers are strong and long-lasting! Genuine leather genuinely not.
Another point I want to highlight that the Genuine Leather tag also cannot provide any information on the source of the leather - whether it is cruelty-free, or sustainable. 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? If you really look at the demand for leather over the past couple of decades has risen. Cost took precedence over quality and the most heavily discounted products sold the fastest. Irrespective of how pure leather being used.
If the price is not a constraint, you should always buy authentic high-quality leather that ages really well and avoid the product with only a ‘genuine leather’ tag. 99 times out of 100, such products are made with split leather, the cheapest real leather in terms of quality and price. Look for is full grain leather or corrected grain leather. Imagine worldwide only 10% of leather goods are made up of using these high grades of leather. This tells the exclusivity of Full Grain/Top Grain Leather which lasts forever.
