Leather is a very popular material. Commonly used leathers are buffalo leather, cowhide (shoes, wallets, belts, coats…), pig skins (wallets) and sheepskins (jackets, gloves), in addition to young cowhides, goat skin, horse skin, ostrich skin, crocodile skin are often used for high-end products.

These types of leather must go through a process called tanning. This process prevents the leather from decaying over time and polishes the leather for a more beautiful appearance. Before making the finished product, the leather is also covered with a layer of paint to create gloss and color. Leather products are quite expensive. Leather is also a material used by many people to cover chairs, sofa covers, car seats, office chair covers, massage chair covers, etc.

As technology is getting higher and higher, the phenomenon of counterfeiting products and materials is increasing day by day. But recognizing the difference of these materials is not recognized by everyone.

To help consumers distinguish what is real leather, what is fake leather FORTUNA Leather will help you with some ways to be able to accurately distinguish genuine leather or just imitation leather.

What is genuine leather?

Genuine leather is also known as leather, products made of genuine leather are usually labeled real leather, genuine leather, genuine leather (cowhide), 100% leather…

There are two popular types of imitation leather materials today: simili and PU.

• Simili: is a cheap, hard imitation leather material, covered with a layer of polyester on the surface, so it is very glossy, often sewn as market goods. So just by looking and touching, you can recognize them.
• PU: is a high-quality, soft imitation material, and if you don’t check it carefully, many people will mistake them for real leather. However, the nature of PU is still a form of artificial synthetic compound, so it can peel off over time.

FORTUNA Leather would like to offer the following 8 ways to help you distinguish real leather from fake leather.

8 ways to distinguish genuine leather from fake leather

Way 1: Look closely at the product

You look closely at the surface of the leather they give you. If it is real leather, there will be protrusions on the surface. Depending on the level of tanning and processing, the surface of the leather will be flat, soft, etc., but still leave traces of relative roughness. Meanwhile, the imitation leather ones will be flat. Genuine leather will have small pores, but fake leather will not.

Way 2: Touch the product

Put your hand on the surface of the product and feel it. If it is leatherette, you will feel the outstanding smoothness of the plastic layer created by synthetic materials when they are made shiny. This will be more obvious when you touch this surface in winter, you will feel cold. As for real leather, you will feel soft and smooth whenever you touch it. Moreover, real leather never feels cool even in winter.

Way 3: Smell the product

Products made from animal skin often smell of animal fat (like a slightly musty smell), while imitation leather smells like synthetic resin.

Way 4: Press on the product

Use your thumb and press firmly on the surface of the product. If it’s genuine leather, it will leave a dent around your thumb. However, when you remove your hand, the indentation will disappear indicating the elasticity of the real leather surface. As for fake leather, synthetic materials will not be able to have this elasticity, the indentation will also remain intact by layers of artificial particles, forming a split fake leather.

Way 5: Look closely at the product

Looking at a cross section of the leather and the tanned part, you will see that real leather consists of uneven fibers. So, when you use your fingers to scrape the surface of the skin, (to try to leave scratches, scratches) they will not make any obvious changes. Whereas with imitation leather, they are inherently woven in texture, not solid, so they will get scratched.

Way 6: Wet the product

Put a few drops of water on the surface of the product. If it is genuine leather, after a few minutes, you will see the water streak spreading, penetrating the skin through the pores. Real leather always absorbs moisture. Not fake leather.

Way 7: Burn or heat the product over fire

If it’s real leather, you’ll smell a burning smell like burnt hair. The fake leather will give off the smell of burning plastic.

Way 8: Color of the product

The color of fake leather is always bright, while the color of real leather is dark or just as bright as morning dew.

With 8 ways on Fortuna leather hope everyone can easily distinguish real leather from imitation leather.