Natural or artificial leather? What to choose?

Shoes are an important issue for modern man. When choosing it, attention is paid not only to how it looks, whether it is comfortable in it, but also to what materials it is made of.

Let's figure out which shoes are better – made of genuine leather or leatherette.

To do this, let's first look at the features of these types of material.

Genuine Leather

This is a material that is made from the skin of animals, which has different properties due to different species, different habitats, nutrition and other factors. Genuine leather is individual in its structure, because in nature there are no identical animals.

Without a doubt, in shoes made of genuine leather, the feet are comfortable, such shoes stretch, the right microclimate is created in it, it is practical and durable.

Of the minuses, one can attribute its cost and the fact that leather shoes do not like to get very wet, and during outdoor activities or sports activities in all-leather shoes, the foot may sweat excessively.

Faux Leather

The production of artificial leather for shoes consists in the fact that a PVC or polyurethane coating is applied to the material. The basis is a knitted, woven or non-woven fabric. Products coated with polyurethane are more elastic and softer. This makes them almost identical in properties to genuine leather products. Of course, the quality of the material depends on the selection of the base, the quality of the fillers and the production processes.

There are no restrictions on colors and models for artificial leather products, it all depends on the manufacturer's imagination. It is also worth noting that artificial leather can be not only smooth, as usual, but also have other textures. For example, the material can be made to look like nubuck or suede. In addition, shoes made of artificial leather get wet more slowly, keep the shape of the shoe well, and its cost is lower than products made of genuine leather.

The disadvantages include the fact that the quality of artificial leather is difficult to determine by eye or by touch. Such material does not like temperature changes, has an imperfect ability to "breathe".

Summary

In many ways, the quality of materials, both natural and artificial, depends on the manufacturer. Some companies have replaced natural leather with artificial leather due to moral principles, refusing to use the skin of dead animals, investing huge amounts of money in developing a worthy alternative. Others have taken this step to keep production costs down and provide a more budget-friendly offering to the market. There are also those who remain unchanged in their approach to the production of shoes, using only natural leather.

Select – this is good: wear what you are comfortable with, what you like, because high-quality shoes come in both genuine leather and artificial leather.