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Comment by thalesmello | Hacker News Reader

I'm happy that exists as an alternative for those who care about this.

I (meat-eater) am done with leather alternatives for now. A while back, I bought the official leather-alternative case for my everyday-carry Roav sunglasses, but it didn't last me very long. Frustrated with that, I ordered a custom made case with real leather, that cost me double the price, but it has been aging really nicely.

For me, paying extra for good leather, that will last longer and is byproduct of meat I already eat, seems to be the best decision in terms of sustainability. Hopefully technology will improve so that we have more options in the future.

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Leather’s near-magical. It’s so resilient it’s almost hard to believe it’s real.

It’ll be cool if someone even gets close to that with alternatives, especially at a similar price, but I’m not holding my breath.

I get the impression these alternatives are mostly a replacement for bonded “leather” so far, which is such a shit material that they ought to be able to surpass it without trouble.

There are many natural products which have a similar magic. Cork, sheep wool, bees wax, &c.

And yes most alternative leathers are plastic with 10% of something in top so you can call it "apple" leather, "pine apple" leather, ... Or straight up petrol derivates

leather would be pretty darn perfect if leather shoes didn't need a break-in period.

I'm extremely weary of leather shoewear because I've suffered too many sores in my life, specially when I was a child. I'd like to have comfy shoes that last long but the break in period...

In basic training we were taught to wear in our new boots by bending the toe-half of the sole back and forth for hours, and when we went to bed, we positioned them in a folded up position under our bunk bed frames. When we went to use them the next day, they weren't too stiff. Still have those boots, some ~15 years later, for mowing the lawn now though.

My problem is usually at the back of the feet, at the heels, usually the external side

Thanks for the tips though

Frankly, I'm not sure we should completely abandon leather.

Large mammals die all the time, and it would be more wasteful to just burn the leather, rather than use it as a durable material.

Besides, how much livestock is grown and slaughtered specifically for leather? A minute amount, presumably, but I'm willing to be proven wrong in anyone has the data.

The kinds of people who would go out of their way to buy plant-based substitute leather products presumably are also not on board with the mass slaughter of livestock for any purpose. Even if they were dying "anyway", to purchase any byproducts is to partially fund the operation and improve the economics of an industry they consider unethical.

Surely those people are also choosing not to have children, since the human population growth of this planet is what spurred the less ethical farms to exist as more economical, space-efficient ways to farm the fauna people had been farming for centuries? I also don't find the farms entirely ethical, based on the exposé media I'd seen of them. I just don't know what the alternative is, other than have products made partially with fossil fuels that break more frequently.

> as more economical, space-efficient ways to farm the fauna people had been farming for centuries? I also don't find the farms entirely ethical, based on the exposé media I'd seen of them.

I’ve been vegan for more than 15 years, i have no children but that’s an entirely separate debate, forecasts all around the world indicate a slowdown in global birthrates this might seem good at first but is not so much, it means an increase in average age of population which means lower birthrates and less people in the productive age brackets. The earth have enough resources to feed the current population many times over but not its greed, meat is incredibly inefficient as food, only 1% to 4% of the fed calories are converted into food, that without mentioning emissions, water usage, deforestation, soil contamination and the ethical problem of enslaving torturing and killing billions of sentient creatures just for sensory pleasure.

> how much livestock is grown and slaughtered specifically for leather

Yes and, I would hope that the majority of leather comes from cattle that are grown and slaughtered for meat. In that case, the amount of cattle put through the meat grinder is a function of both the demand for meat and the demand for leather, but it would be unlikely to be sensitive to both at the same time. I suspect, given that meat has so much turnover whereas leather lasts a long time, that we are meat-bound rather than hide-bound.

I don't believe it is.

My daughter was very disappointed with the shoes she bought recently. They lasted less than half the time real leather model from the same brand did and cost more! They also developed creases and were difficult to polish. I am ok with alternatives when they are alternatives not replacements. It's like with vegan vs. vegetarian options at my local japanese food place. They replaced all but one vegetarian dish with vegan variants and are not bringing the vegetarian dishes back. That's not choice, that's forced replacement.

> That's not choice, that's forced replacement

It was a choice for the restaurant - they are agents in this as well, and may be doing so based on their own values vs. economic forecasts.

Let me guess: Doc Martens… their boots (especially faux leather ones) are absolutely bottom tier garbage.

Doc Martens used to be good, but quality has declined steeply. Their Wikipedia page will give you a good idea as to when and why https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Martens

Was it private equity?

(Yes, it was private equity)

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