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Comment by jolt42 | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a shame more real leather isn't used. It just goes to waste, but fake leather is cheaper.

Fake leather is such an annoying scam. Real leather can last for a century if taken care of, fake leather lasts a handful of years before it literally flakes away into nothing.

Though that reminds me of the time I bought a real leather couch set that had absolute garbage everything else, the legs broke after a couple of years. Really not the part I was expecting the manufacturer to have cheaper out on...

I too am annoyed by “faux leather” as it is so stupid to see some ad saying leather jacket and when you look at the details see faux leather. That is not a leather jacket it is a plastic jacket so cut the shit. Same level of ragebait as things like vegetarian “meat”balls.

> Same level of ragebait as things like vegetarian “meat”balls.

There is some amazing vegetarian food out there. Both Buddhist and Hindu cultures have been making amazing vegetarian food for literally thousands of years and they are really good at it.

Also, vegetables are just yummy!

Fake meat, no thanks. Incredible vegetarian and vegan food exists, stop trying to fake it. Same with gluten free foods, almond flour is an amazing ingredient but it is different than flour. It is funny that the keto community had amazing gluten free recipes years before the gluten free communities figured it out.

Exactly. I find myself incidentally eating vegetarian most of the week, being Indian, just because it tastes good (and because it's cheaper, but that's another matter). My parents only eat meat on the weekends due to such cost so it's interesting to see people in the West eat meat for every meal such that its lack is noted.

Agreed... when I was a vegetarian, I ate nothing but Indian/Malay/Thai etc and it was great. If I hadn't moved I would probably be vegetarian to this day.

What’s wrong with vegetarian meatballs? As a vegetarian I find naming the products after what they’re imitating far more helpful that coming up with some clumsy confusing name that’s obviously trying to imply what they want to say without saying it… does anyone really read the word “vegetarian” and then still think it must have meat in it? I don’t think that’s a real problem

"Stop calling it soy MILK! There's no such thing as oat MILK! Milk comes from COWS."

What should they call it, then? Oat beverage? Soy water? No, that's silly. They are, functionally, milks. That's an apt descriptor.

Ditto for other vegan alternatives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_milk#Labeling_and_termin...

It varies by country.

Maybe "juice" ? "Soy juice" and "Oat juice" sound pretty good to me.

On the "Soy milk" wikipedia page, it is said that Germany and Italy use names like "soy drink" or "soy beverage".

It is much closer in taste and use to milk than it is to juice.

I see my comment got upvotes but yours is downvoted for some reason, maybe they only read the first sentence and thought you were disagreeing? (or they agree with this for meastball but not milk for some reason)

It's more amusing when they call it "vegan leather".

Fake leather has a wide, wide range of quality. Polyurethane faux-leather used in many automobiles these days is considered to be superior to leather in terms of durability and longevity. Take a look at old examples of MB-Tex, which Mercedes has been making for ... 60-70 years by now.

Similarly, plenty of leather that will disintegrate and flake into trash or crack and peel, especially if not taken care of well.

My Mercedes "leather" seats have flaked in ten years, almost the entire seat area (where my butt goes) is now showing the white underneath.

Plenty of real leather seats that have done the same. I had a 10 year old real leather Volkswagen that did the same myself.

Meanwhile, I have a 11 year old Vinyl “fake leather” car with no issues, and a 8 year old car with PU pleather that looks nearly brand new. Ironically, the steering wheel is made of real leather and has started flaking in a few small corners.

I’m not sure how any of those anecdotes proves which is more durable or long lasting than the other.

There are also many grades or "real" leather. In particular, the label "Genuine Leather" means little more than "bits of leather included" [1].

[1] https://mahileather.com/blogs/news/what-is-genuine-leather

This seems like a good time to share the obligatory Fortnine leather vs fake leather video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwuRUcAGIEU

There’s also the fact that leather is the waste by product of harvesting meat. People aren’t going to stop eating meat any time soon.

I think you misread the word feather.

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