Nowadays, shoe manufacturers use increasingly sophisticated materials, which mimic natural leather quite well. But they don’t have the same properties and deteriorate in a few months. Here are some clues to recognize natural leather shoes and not fooling yourself by paying too much for synthetic materials.
Natural leather has its qualities. The better it is processed, the finer and softer and the more comfortable are the shoes.
But today there are synthetic materials that mimic natural skin quite well, but they are not as durable or as soft. After a few uses, they begin to smell unpleasant, begin to crack or fade. Here’s how to recognize natural leather shoes and avoid imitations.
Look closely at the material endings
Pay attention to cuts, in the area of laces, on strips or on the edges where endings occur. Try to file the material with your nail. If it doesn’t t come off in layers, it is natural skin. If it is slightly irregularly cut or has pores just on the edge, it is also leather.
If the material splits into thin sheets, when you try to file it, it is a synthetic material. And if it is perfectly cut and eventually edged with a gummy substance, it is still synthetic.
The pores of the leather don’t have a regular form
Any synthetic material can mimic the so-called pores of the leather, those small holes where the hairs were. In natural leather shoes, the pores are uneven, at smaller or greater distances, depending on how the hairs grew.
Synthetic materials have regular pores, they are all the same, oriented in the same direction, even though they seem to mimic natural pores.
Pay attention to the label
Even if there are manufacturers that use fake natural leather labels, if you buy shoes from specialized and reliable stores you will not be fooled.
Natural leather shoes have a specific smell
You may be familiar with the smell of natural leather, especially if you are wearing leather or fur coats. Don’t be afraid to smell the shoes if you’re not sure what they are made of. If you smell plastic, then it’s not natural leather.
Finishes, better quality leather
The finish of a natural leather shoe is always of quality, compared to the imitation shoes, which sell cheaply, and the manufacturer doesn’t invest the details.
