Leather: The good, the bad and the ugly.

Why leather is so “nasty” and how it can be “totes” sustainable

We just released JUST APPROVED Handbags & Leather+ on Tuesday — quite possibly to the surprise of many of our followers I might add, because, “Leather? Sustainable? Could it be?!?”

You see, leather production is about as unsustainable as it gets. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Animals are more often than not treated horribly and killed inhumanely to harvest hides (I won’t go into at length here, but there’s a ton of research to support this, especially from organizations like PETA).
2. Our consumption of natural leather has led to a high demand for cattle. Making room for rearing cattle and producing livestock feed has contributed massively to deforestation and land degradation, and has also released additional amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas even worse than CO2.
3. Chemicals — as toxic as they come — are used in the tanning process to prevent the animal hides from decomposing, and making them more usable and supple.

Phew 😓

Project JUST: Leather, the good, the bad and the ugly

But leather is kinda everywhere, when you think about it: wallets, shoes, cars, bags, luggage, belts, the list goes on… Most of us already have it or continue to buy it, and so we knew we needed to fully understand the category to realistically help shoppers make better decisions.

At Project JUST, we’re all about being realistic, while also encouraging progress in the industry. If we didn’t find anything that met our criteria, then so be it. But if we did find innovation and sustainable practices, then we wanted to encourage it. We didn’t think we could ask everyone in the world to stop buying leather, but we knew we could find things worth a second look, and definitely knew we could find alternatives — whether they be reclaimed materials, fish leather, vegan leather or something else.

So our team asked ourselves: could leather production even be JUST APPROVED at all? And under what conditions? And what alternatives exist?

Here’s where we finally landed on the thumbs up OR thumbs down (EMOJI). Also watch our video to get a short glimpse on why leather is so messy, but why there’s hope on many fronts for alternatives and different types of production 💪🏽.

1. Leather production can be done in a sustainable and safe way. Using natural tanning techniques or bio-synthetics that avoid the use of scary, toxic chemicals like chromium, help eliminate the harmful effects of modern tanning. Brands that know where their leather comes from, know their suppliers well and are pursuing innovative production techniques prove that there are models of sustainable leather production. Is their supply chain perfectly sustainable? No, because the leather industry isn’t perfect. But we feel strongly that there are brands that are taking big steps — and big risks — to move the industry in the right direction, and we want to support that.
2. Leather work is a skilled craft. Producing and working with leather is an ancient craft and profession practiced by people all over the world, particularly in developing countries, and is also an important source of livelihoods for many. We think that when the hide is sourced, harvested and tanned in a safe, sustainable and ethical way, this can be an incredibly valuable and beautiful craft.
3. The alternatives out there are numerous and rad. If you’re still unconvinced and feel strongly about animals being harmed in the production of natural leather, we found some incredible alternatives that use reclaimed materials like fire-hoses and fish leather. Cool, right? We’re also excited about Piñatex™ (pineapple leather 🍍) and MuSkin (100% mushroom leather 🍄), but we didn’t find any established brands using them just yet. We’re keeping an eye out for them!
4. Vegan leather = usually no bueno. We didn’t give any vegan leather, pleather or any of the new faux leathers JUST APPROVED status. Why? Vegan leather is usually made from plastic, using scary substances like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyutherane (PU). Plastic is bad for the environment for many reasons (ahem petroleum anyone? or how about the massive plastic islands in our oceans?) — PVCs have all sorts of nasty chemicals in them (check out our context research for more on this), and unlike natural fibers and leather products, are not bio-degradable, leaving their environmental footprint on our planet long after you stop using them. We didn’t find any vegan leather brands which are currently not using plastics. What to do instead? For vegans, we encourage you to instead look for brands that either use reclaimed materials or are made using plant-based materials like the alternatives we’ve suggested above!

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this rather complicated but important category! Leave us a comment, send us an email, and of course — read through our research on the industry and the winning brands on JUST APPROVED: Handbags & Leather+!