3 ms·
The problem with pleather, in my experience, isn't that it feels insufficiently leather-like. The appearance is also just fine; the tendency to fade actually pr
by scythe 9y ago
The problem with pleather, in my experience, isn't that it feels insufficiently leather-like. The appearance is also just fine; the tendency to fade actually produces a somewhat nice pattern. The real problem is that the durability of most fake leather is drastically inferior to natural leather.
From personal experience, I had a leather jacket which I got in my first year of college (2008) and wore until it was stolen from my car in early 2016, when it was still in nearly-perfect condition (although the zipper got worse). I replaced it with a pleather jacket which has already lost most of the material on the right elbow and may soon develop a hole.
So I hope this mushroom-derived material will be at least somewhat more durable. What I really want to see is a sort of fake leather made from a more resilient polymer, such as polyetherimide or one of the other "high-performance polymers". Until that situation improves, I think I'm going back to cowhide.
- marssaxman 9y agoI still wear the leather motorcycle jacket I bought when I moved to Seattle in 1999. (I didn't even own a motorcycle then; I just bought it because it looked cool!) I've had to replace snaps and zipper pulls, but even after years of abuse, including half a dozen unintended close encounters with asphalt, the leather is still holding up fine.
- NovaS1X 9y agoThe durability isn't just a nice feature, but for motorcyclists is essential. I haven't found anything that comes close to the abrasion resistance that natural leather has (while looking like a leather jacket, not including things like kevlar for example). Top it off with durability that can seriously last a lifetime and look better with age, there's no real competition in the synthetic leathers that comes close to the real thing.
- foobarian 9y agoI'm not a motorcyclist, and I noticed multiple comments mentioning durability of leather is important for motorcyclists. How come? Is falling off a common thing with motorcycles? It sure isn't very common with bicycles or cars.
- skellera 9y agoI don’t think it’s about how often. It’s about that one time it happens, you want protection. The skid distance on a motorcycle isn’t comparable to a bicycle.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoI wouldn't say it's common, but it does happen. A skid in a car due to something like an oil spill in a corner would be a lowside on a bike, and a bit of a slide. With reasonable gear (leather or high-quality textile, with shock-absorbing pads), it's relatively undramatic, but rather annoying. It's just the nature of 2-wheeled vehicles of all kinds.
- NovaS1X 9y agoIt's not that accidents happen often, it's that they will happen given enough time, and when they do happen you really want to be protected. Even quality thick selvedge denim jeans tear like wet tissue paper in under a second when you slide on pavement. Leather has been long proven to have great abrasion resistance saving yourself from needing a skin graft in the unfortunate event of a slide (which will happen at least once in any motorcyclists career). I just really wish there was a faux-leather option that looked and performed as well as a real-leather jacket.
- lucas_membrane 9y agothe durability of most fake leather is drastically inferior to natural leather How about Corfam? It was promoted as 'wearing like iron.' Remember the song from "Oklahoma" about the "Surrey with the Fringe on the Top"? It says, "The dashboard's genuine leather." So what was artificial leather in 1905 Oklahoma? Something like cardboard with wax-paper veneered on, IIRC. Is Mylo better than that?Geniuses been trying a long time to do this. Even money that we'll have tomatoes with leather skins or cows that are born with 'Wilson' on their sides so footballs are easier to make before anything exists that is a better leather than leather.