- Maya Muralidharan
Know your Leather Better! - Types of Leather
Leather tanning and processing is one of the oldest industries in human civilization employing umpteen number of individuals. As per the Council for Leather Exports (Trade organization sponsored by Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India), Leather industry in India is employment intensive providing job to about 4.42 million people mostly from rural areas of India and about 30% of the workforce is women. Since ages, Leather is used to make intricate clothing articles such as footwear, gloves, armor, water bottles for travelers, weapons and fashion accessories.
The quality of leather varies on several factors. Different animals yield different quality of hides. Most of our leather is either a cow hide, goat hide or camel hide. The layers within a hide also impact the use and quality of leather. Quality of hide depends on the conditions in which the animal has lived: diet, nutrition and climate or exposure to disease etc. Other factors which affect the quality of the leather is the processing it is subjected to such as the tanning by chemicals and the dyes and stains which have been used and also the finishing process involved in making the final product.
An animal hide has several layers starting from the uppermost surface of the hide (side from which the hair has been removed) to the inner layer (where the hide is originally connected to the flesh). The fiber structure of the leather varies throughout the thickness of the hide, being tightest and densest at the upper layer and looser and soft toward the lower side.
In general, there are 4 types of leather. These include Full Grain Leather, Top Grain Leather, Nubuck Leather and Suede Leather. Majority of our products are made from Top Grain Leather.
