What the difference between PU leather and real leather?

Posted by hw on November 21st, 2019

PU leather is simply artificial leather.

It was created to look and feel like leather but without having to use real animal skin.

In contrast, real leather is plain and simple LEATHER . Directly coming as the skin and treated & tanned as per the need. Leather has the following properties for which it is desired all around.

High tensile strength

High resistance to tear

Excellent resistance to flexing

Permeability to water vapor which is good for human skin

Good abrasion resistance

It is safe to say that when you see the customized pu leather handbags, it’s not authentic leather. There are a number of ways to make PU leather but the most common one is to use split leather and combine it with polyurethane then paste it on to a surface. Although PU leather is different from genuine leather, there are still a number of similarities with the real thing. After all, PU leather was created to fool your sense of sight and touch.

PU leather is a coating of Polyurethane on a thin layer of leather. This coating imparts a glossy finish to the leather along with the value addition to the lower quality leather used. The final quality achieved is nothing better than PU, because none of the qualities that are inherent to leather are present here. Using the leather beneath the PU gives the brand a liberty to use the word Leather which is more premium and costlier.

Genuine leather (GL) came from the skin of an animal. It'll have a significantly longer lifespan bc of it's durability since it breathes, isn't as easily damaged, and is noticably stiffer which allows the product to retain it's shape, so it looks better for longer. Genuine leather is more environmentally friendly in terms of it's ability to decompose properly and it's longer lifespan, which results in less waste and consumption. Concerns arise with animal cruelty since you're skinning the animal to get a belt or briefcase or whatever it is you're DYING for, species survival, and the high cost associated with this better quality item.

So,do you know the difference between the PU leather and real leather?