Bags made of genuine leather: companions for life?
1. Unique combination of features
Leather is a high-quality natural product used when other materials such as textiles, plastics, or metals fail. For centuries, leather has been used as a durable material, primarily for transportation, human protection, and living space. In the home, the most comfortable and reliable leather products are leather couches, leather armchairs, and car seats. Motorcycle riders protect themselves from serious injuries with padded leather jackets and trousers. In the bag and luggage sector, there are many different shapes and types of leather that will serve you well for years.
But what properties make leather such a loyal companion?
Unlike other materials, leather offers several properties in one: high wearing comfort, durability, robustness, flexibility, and tear resistance. This combination allows leather to offer something no other natural material can. Canvas or linen also offer similar properties, but are not as robust as leather. Artificial materials such as plastic or nylon are lightweight and inexpensive but usually not as tear-resistant and have sustainability issues related to their production, which involve chemicals, and also their disposal.
Few products are as versatile in their uses and processing possibilities as leather. It's not just a product—it's a fascinating material! To create a long-lasting companion, these properties are enhanced through processing techniques. You can learn more about this in the chapters below (Types of Leather/Tanning Processes).
2. High-quality bags made of genuine leather become more beautiful over time
Just like fine wine, the character of the high-quality leather in your leather bag changes over time. This graceful aging process is called patina. It develops through frequent wear, friction, oxidation, varying temperatures, and the weather. Every temporary moment is reflected in a permanent mark on the material. Be it scratches from your annual city trip, color variations from rainy days outdoors, or lighter patches from warm summer days. You can be sure that your bag, too, will develop a unique and individual look based on your life.
Proper care is essential for your leather bag to develop, mature, and develop its own unique character. Depending on the type of leather, different care products and products are recommended, so that your high-quality leather travel bag, for example, can be a faithful companion on all your travels. You can learn how to best care for each type of leather in our leather care guide . For example, with a little leather grease, you can easily remove a scratch from the surface of your bag made of pull-up leather (cowhide).
3. Handmade for a personal touch
Leatherworking is considered the oldest craft in human history. The origins of leather can be traced back to the hunter-gatherer era, when they sought to process all the valuable resources available. Over time, our ancestors realized that leather could last a lifetime and retain its shine even under extreme conditions.
At MyBagFactory, we have our bags entirely handcrafted by an experienced family business in India. Fair, resource-efficient production and high-quality leather craftsmanship are very important to us. Because only when the stitching holds and the leather is beautiful and robust can your leather bag bring you a lifetime of joy!
To ensure you get a long-lasting product, you should always research the origin of the material before purchasing. The availability of genuine leather products has increased in recent years, and manufacturers have established themselves in the low-price sector. This leather is not nearly as high-quality as genuine handcrafted leather. Therefore, thin-skinned goat or sheep leather is usually machine-processed, which, contrary to the characteristic properties of strong leather, is short-lived and fragile.
Even with high-quality handcrafting, the seam or zipper can sometimes fail. Just because you use your bag or backpack every day doesn't mean your friendship is over. Because we love our bags and want them to be a loyal companion for a long time, we offer a repair service . With a little skill, almost any damage to a high-quality genuine leather bag can be repaired.
4. Means and processes that enhance leather properties
Different types of leather
The robustness of leather is not solely due to the quality of the material and the workmanship. It also depends on the animal from which the leather comes. Differences primarily lie in thickness, density, and stiffness. While women's leather bags are often made from thinner sheepskin or split cowhide (more thinly split), travel bags, briefcases, laptop bags, and men's leather bags are more likely to use cowhide or even buffalo leather, as these must withstand heavy weight. The relatively stiff saddle leather is also popular for briefcases and saddle bags.
Thin goat & sheep leather
Thin sheep and goat leather is stretchy, soft, and pliable. It is the most unpredictable type of leather. Depending on the breed and environmental conditions, the hide's quality can vary greatly and tear easily.
Goat leather
Goatskin is one of the most popular leathers in the world. It is very thin, lightweight, windproof, and tear-resistant.
When buying a bag, make sure it is made of reinforced goatskin, which is more robust and durable.
Cowhide
The gently smoothed cowhide. This classic among all leather types impresses not only with its high-quality and glossy appearance, but also with its easy care and high durability.
Buffalo leather
The robust buffalo leather has a rather rustic look and is prized by true leather lovers. However, its open-pored, natural structure allows light and liquids to penetrate the leather more easily. This can be counteracted with proper tanning.
Would you like to learn more about our different types of leather? Then the myBagfactory Leather Lexicon is for you.
The different tanning processes
One of the most important steps in leather production is tanning. This process preserves the raw hides, preventing deterioration. It also enhances the leather's typical properties and can significantly influence its appearance. Depending on the method or process, the leather can become more stable, tear-resistant, waterproof, and harder. It can also have a visually appealing, elegant, natural, or vintage appearance.
Open-pored
This method only minimally alters the leather's appearance. This not only creates a natural, soft texture, but also a natural feel. However, it is considerably more delicate than pigmented leather.
Oiled
Here, the hides are treated with animal fats or oil. This tanning process can only partially counteract the swelling of the fibers due to moisture.
waxed
This process closes the leather's open pores and makes it particularly water-repellent, while preserving its characteristic surface characteristics.
Pigmented
Pigmented leather is considered robust, easy to care for, and uncomplicated. After the tanning and dyeing process, it is coated with a layer of lacquer. This eliminates the characteristic skin texture, including the pores. This treatment offers very high protection against stains, water, and light.
5. Real leather versus artificial leather - sustainable differences
With today's changes, vegan imitation leather is also becoming increasingly popular. Synthetic leather is particularly used in the fast-paced fashion industry, whereas real leather is more designed for longer wear. Admittedly, there are many alternatives that look quite similar to leather. To ensure that the imitation leather is visually indistinguishable from leather, it is coated with either a layer of environmentally harmful polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane (PU), which mimics the structure and grain of the material. Nevertheless, these leather alternatives cannot replace the original material. For one thing, vegan leather is usually much harder than real leather unless special chemical softeners are used. On the other hand, vegetable-tanned leather, a byproduct of meat production, is arguably the most sustainable and least environmentally harmful material for beautiful and long-lasting bags. For another, leather develops an incomparable patina, which is absent in vegan leather. This gives leather bags a great deal of charm and character, which can be passed down to future generations as a personal keepsake.
Ultimately, it can be said that real leather still prevails over synthetic leather. Leather is naturally more durable, tear-resistant, and abrasion-resistant than vegan leather.
6. Slow Fashion - Because fast fashion is simply no longer contemporary!
Slow fashion, or slower fashion, stands for a conscious approach to clothing and accessories. Slow fashion thus means sustainability through the recycling or resource-efficient production of clothes, bags, etc. Whereas the focus used to be solely on consumption, low prices, and the ability to quickly change fashion, environmental awareness and a greater awareness of the product and the story behind it are now important. It's no wonder, then, that there are a growing number of secondhand shops and clothing swap platforms for clothing and accessories. Slow fashion thus also stands for individual, sustainable consumer behavior.
If, despite everything, you decide to part with your leather bag at some point, that doesn't mean it's reached the end of its life and has to be thrown away. Someone else will surely appreciate it, so you can either try to resell it or do something good and donate it. True to the motto "Made to Last" or "Bags for Eternity," we pursue the goal of bringing joy not only to you but also to someone else, perhaps even to the next generation, with high-quality leather products.