Leather is one of the most expensive materials to make. The leather industry generates an estimated $806 billion in revenue each year, and the number of people working in that industry has grown considerably over the last few years.
The cost of leather production is due to a number of factors
It takes a cow at least a year to get big enough to produce a skin big enough for a huge panel rather than small parts sewn together while manufacturing leather. In addition to the time required, you will also need to feed and water the animal as well as maintain its safety and well-being. This is one of the factors that contribute to leather’s high cost.
A single animal can only yield so much leather, and the leather must be properly cured and treated with a number of chemicals in order to make it attractive and useful. Leather is also incredibly heavy and challenging to handle.
It takes specialized tools and knowledge to create something out of leather. You must start over if any mistakes are made throughout the manufacturing process.
Types of Leather
The type of leather used and the method of production are often what determines the price of leather goods. The highest grade leather is frequently thought to be full grain leather, with bonded leather and natural leather being the lowest.
In contrast to high street luxury shops, which typically stock real leather in order to offer more accessible rates, cheaper leather furniture, such as sofas manufactured of bonded leather, is more likely to be found. On the other hand, designer labels typically employ full-grain leather, calf leather, or even rare leathers like ostrich.
The kind of animal skin used is another aspect that affects the price. Because cowhide is the most popular sort of leather, it costs more than other types of leather.
Colors of Leather
Fully colored leathers are more expensive than semi-dyed leathers, which is not surprising given how difficult and time-consuming it is to locate better-quality skins that can be dyed. In comparison to hand-antiqued leathers, some leathers can be completed by machine spraying, which is significantly less expensive.
Moreover, it depends on the hue you’re producing. For instance, producing many hides in a single hue costs far cheaper than producing a few hides in a variety of uncommon colors.
The product is less expensive for the buyer because of the money saved by producing them in mass. You might anticipate that a green leather jacket, white leather jacket, or bag would cost more because white leather is the hardest color of leather to produce.
Tanning of Leather
Vegetable tanning, which uses natural coloring techniques like tree bark and tannin to color the leather instead of chemicals, is typically used to produce higher-quality leather goods. It costs extra because this process takes so much longer than other tanning techniques. The process of chrome tanning, which employs chemicals to tan the leather and is considerably quicker and less expensive, is used to process the majority of leather.
Cost of Genuine Leather
Genuine leather and fake leather differ significantly from one another. However, the simplest method to tell if something is real leather is by the material used. Genuine top-grain sheepskin or cowhide is expensive because it takes a long time to find the perfect animal hide and turn it into usable leather. This process is known as tanning.
Either a chrome tanning technique or a vegetable tanning procedure can be used to tan leather. A single piece of leather can be tanned using these techniques in as little as one day or as little as 40 days. Therefore, the final product’s composition has a significant impact on how much the leather would cost. Genuine leather clothing would cost more.
The finished product needs to be carefully packaged and shipped to retailers around the world, which adds to costs. It means if you want quality products then you have to spend.
