Differences between artificial leather, synthetic leather, vegan leather, MF leather, etc.
It seems that so many people think that the product called "Vegan leather" is something special, so I'd like to explain it.
(A) Fashion item maker(s) which affirm(s) to be using "Vegan" leather seems to has/have appeared in Japan as well.
Vegan leather is not a name of a new material.
There are only two main types of fake leather currently on the market in Japan.
合成皮革 and 人工皮革.
And there are many brands of each of them.
So unfortunately, "Vegan leather" is NOT something vegans in 2021 expect, especially unless specified.
It is NOT biodegradable nor made from plants,
it is not pineapples nor mushrooms, it is plastic.
At least, I have never seen things like that.
I don't mean "Do not buy it" nor "It is not vegan".
I am wearing plastic shoes too.
What I'd like to do is to explain what it is to people who want to know.
For convenience, we will call 合成皮革 synthetic leather, and 人工皮革 artificial leather here.
All fake leathers currently on the market in Japan are either of these.
Therefore, anything other than genuine leather and recycled leather再生皮革 can be called "Vegan leather".
In other words, "new type" vegan leathers in recent years are just a sales strategy that is commonly used in the fashion industry, replacing the words that have the image of "fake" such as "artificial", "synthetic" etc with "trendy" and "positive" words such as "Vegan", "Neo".
In other words, some of fashion item makers found that more value can be added on the same products just by changing the tags.
In general, the products currently sold in Japan as "Vegan leather" are often made with artificial leather 人工皮革 which is considered to be high quality fake leather.
Artificial leather 人工皮革 is a material that artificially reproduced the structure of leather by impregnating polyurethane(PU)ポリウレタン into a three-dimensional non-woven fabric.
So, some of textile makers call it MF Leather (microfiber leather).
Since it is a non-woven fabric, it has the flexibility like genuine leather, and in the case of shoes, it can be "break in".
Clarinoクラリーノ by Kurarayクラレ is the top brand of a long time.
It is adopted by the Self-Defense Forces too.
In contrast, synthetic leather 合成皮革 is a material other than three-dimensional non-woven fabric, coated with polyvinyl chloride(PVC)塩化ビニール or some products are coated with polyurethane(PU).
Since the flexibility is low, it won't change even if you try to "break in".
You may remember fake leather long time ago which were hard and cheaply shiny, that's it.
It looks a lot better today, but the materials are same.
It is usually lower price than artificial leather人工皮革.
Neo Leather is Uniqlo's own brand of synthetic leather.
If (a)manufacture(s) say(s) their products are "vegan" leather different from regular fake leather, it usually means they use artificial leather人工皮革, not old type of synthetic leather 合成皮革.
The easy way to tell the difference of these two is back side.
Products that look like genuine leather on the back too are artificial leather 人工皮革.
If you are looking for shoes, bags, belts, etc. other than genuine leather that are not cheap looking, soft and smooth, check if the material label is artificial leather人工皮革 or see the back side of the material.
I see numerous shoes labeled artificial leather 人工皮革, also made in Japan in regular shoe stores.
Actually, it is quite common, and reasonably priced.
But I have never seen shoes labeled "Vegan" in regular shoe stores.
Again, they are the same thing.
They just haven't noticed that they can double the value just by changing the tags.
So there may be a lot more choices than you think.
I hope next level vegan leather that vegans in 2021 expect gets common sometime soon.
* 再生皮革 recycled leather is made from real leather scraps.
It is often used to make belts. So be careful.
* The glue may contain animal derived ingredients.
Not only regular shoe makers, but also makers that claim they are using "Vegan leather" may use glue that contain animal derived ingredients.
They may not know that some types of glue contains animal derived ingredients.
Especially if they don't mention that on their website or tags.
It is better to ask what kind of glue they use if it is not mentioned.
* This is about Japanese brands I've seen so far.
I don't know much about imported "Vegan" products.
But it seems to be a similar situation ...??
