And they call themselves leather workers

[Dwight]

I won't give the location . . . but I was in two different "leather" shops last week . . . 

Much of it was vinyl glued to fabric to stiffen it . . . 

Leather coats were absolute junk . . . my Pakistan cafe racer jacket I paid a hundred and a half for . . . was three times the quality of that junk . . . and they wanted twice my Pakistan price.

Belts looked like that pressed together and glued stuff from China . . . single layer . . . with buckle . . . no design . . . 26 bucks each and up

I was almost ashamed to mention in that company I work in leather . . . afraid someone would mistake me for them . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[fredk]

[chuck123wapati]

its the same in the western stores. all mass produced and very little leather.

[SpruceMoose]

There's certainly always been the cheaper options out there, but man it seems so much more prevalent in so many corners of the market.

Currently Etsy is so flooded with cheap tooled western leather(some actually looks decent and is indeed hand tooled) That is mass produced somewhere, that it shocks me sometimes that people find my shop and pay quadruple the amount. A million shops with the same cheap branded tooled western items, or someone stitches on bad mass produced tooled patches to bad mass produced Chinese bags and charges the same as me....and people pay(either that or ridiculously cheap prices) Blows me away. I gebnerally ignore it, but often do a bit of market research to see whats selling and what customers are saying they like or dislike in reviews, and the amount out there is just wild. 

The worst part to me is that these 'middle man' shop owners take the praise as their own hand skill, and the bulk of the customers think these items are all made by some nice lady in America, when the reality is some mass production style workshop where people are getting paid crap wages to pump out tooled leather. I don't mind the ones that charge cheap in some ways, but Some charge and promote their work as though it's a mom and pop shop run and created by one person and that does always irk me.

 

Oh well, the world keeps spinning, and they'll always be people who seek out and know the difference just by looking.

 

[Handstitched]

5 hours ago, SpruceMoose said:

Oh well, the world keeps spinning, and they'll always be people who seek out and know the difference just by looking.

Yeh, like actual  experienced leather worker  folk like ourselves 

I could have a few words to say about someone calling  himself a ' craftsman' , but I won't. 

HS

[Admin]

It was yard sale week in town. Everyone has "leather" sofas made of plastic. No one believes it is plastic, so I keep my mouth shut. I was looking for bookshelves, of course.

~Johanna

[chrisash]

Come on folks, there are different markets for different wage earners or even some with no earnings, Not from the US, but news shows lots of homeless people living on the street and others in a few million dollar mansions. The clever people market their goods to the selected market, not the whole population, if your clever and make good quality items then your market is defiantly not the low paid sector. Just like LV is selective where they sell and market their brand, and don't waste money hitting people who will never buy their products. Generally people who can afford a product recognise the quality or perceived quality and spend their cash on those items, you can never market the whole community just a section, few comfortably well  off people are looking to buy from Etsy , Ebay or Amazon for quality items

[Handstitched]

4 hours ago, chrisash said:

Come on folks, there are different markets for different wage earners or even some with no earnings,

Granted. But this is about certain individuals selling products as " leather" when its actually vinyl, or some other synthetic material.  There are people   out there getting duped, conned, 'taken advantage of' , or  whatever by people that don't have a conscience .  It could also serve to give the experienced leather workers a bad name that make and sell the genuine product.  I've lost count the amount of people that ' sniff' my belts checking to see if its genuine leather, I have to wonder where they get their sceptcism from?  Perhaps from people that the OP has mentioned. 

In my world, honesty is the best policy  

HS

P.S. Nice to see Johanna make a rare appearance 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Handstitched

[fredk]

A. inform local trading standards offices of your concerns. I'm thinking that most places have such located at, in or near the local town hall

B. Many years ago now, about 15, I was in touch with my TSO;,  In the EU 'Leather' is no longer just the material made from the skins of animals, its just a describer. In the same way 'cloth' can be used for wool, cotton, silk

[chrisash]

"Genuine Leather" is not trademarked as a description anywhere around the world. so no standards apply to the term, so reconstituted leather is ok to call it in law even though it may be made of ground up 3rd layer and mixed with glue, bit to late to sort it out now, so need to clarify what leather you are using to fight it

Edited September 10, 2023 by chrisash