Southwick
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2010
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Thank you so much for this information. This is why I love this group.So rather than use these fungible “marketing” terms, I’ll break it down into three main categories:
1. Full-grain leather - nowadays, the stuff generally used by AE, Alden, and other quality makes. Grain is apparent, sometimes will have an applied finish over dyed leather. Easy way to identify: drops of water on the vamp will be absorbed by the leather, leaving two dark spots.
Full grain:
2. PU finished/coated leather - been around a long time in various forms. At the top end is high-quality top-grain leather that’s be buffed down and coated (more like infused) with a PU finish, giving it a perma-shine appearance. Generally weather resistant, it was very popular from the late 70’s to the early 90’s. This is the stuff Church’s labels “binder” and AE called polished cobbler.
This is an example of the high-quality stuff:
At the other end of the spectrum is stuff that’s essentially the same, but has a somewhat thicker finish, with the grain buffed down further to obfuscate low-quality, scarred leather. This is what’s commonly referred to as “corrected grain” as the purpose is to high defects in the grain of the leather. When you strip this stuff (or even just examine very closely), there will often be significant scarring, tick-bites, etc. Because of the heavier finish, this leather tends to be much stiffer and it also can crease deeply. It’s worst attribute, is unlike the high quality stuff, it often feels like it just won’t “break in”.
Low quality CG:
3. Bonded leather - this stuff is often confused with PU coated top-grain leather, as it’s also PU coated, giving untextured versions a vary similar appearance. How it’s made, however, is entirely different. It’s basically the particle board of leather: it’s made of leather scraps, glued onto a fabric backing, then PU coated and then optionally stamped with a texture. This stuff is also called sometimes called “book-binder“ leather as it was developed as a low-cost alternative for the book binding business. It’s since been widely adopted in everything from furniture to clothing. It’s also the worst stuff imaginable when it comes to shoes, as it tends to self destruct. To be clear, this stuff is not CG leather; it’s not really leather at all, IMHO.
Bonded leather:
