Synthetic leather

What is Synthetic Leather?

Synthetic leather describes a textile fabric which is coated by synthetics. More precisely, mostly it is natural fibre fabric or also synthetic fibre fabric which is coated by soft PVC. These coatings are either a compact or foamed layer.

The surface of synthetic leather is often scarred to achieve a similarity to real leather. Modern synthetic leather products have instead of a PVC-coating one made of Polyurethan. Synonyms for synthetic leather are: "Skai", "Vinyl", "Pelliccia artificiale" or "Piel artificial". Names like "Polyamid" or "Polyester" appear as well.

Why do we use synthetic leather?

There are many reasons for using synthetic leather. Real leather is an expensive material which has a high cut off rate due to scars, damages and its irregular outer contours. In contrast to that PVC-based synthetic leather is available for a fair price, has an even surface and is very sturdy. Polyurethan-synthetic leather is washable in a standard household washing machine and doesn't harden while drying. The production is much faster than making real leather because the process of tanning isn't necessary. Also the sourcing has advantages, 'cause synthetic leather isn't depending on the availability of animals skin.

Synthetic leather is used, among other things, in the production of furniture, shoes, other clothes and vehicles.

Kunstleder

Kunstleder