Leather is leather, PU a leather is plastic!

It's so convincing but doesn't stretch and causes sweating with shoes..

I totally agree and am sick and fed up of it. I went into a store and saw a lovely handbag. The label stated leather and there was even that funny jigsaw shaped leather sample attached to the bag.

I can smell leather a mile off and knew this was not leather. There was nothing on the label to say it was PU but I found, tucked away behind the zipped pocket, was a very small tag that said PU.

Surely this is false advertising and is illegal especially when the price reflects it should be leather. So many pairs of shoes, purses, jackets state leather when it is PU. I will never buy anything leather I want online as I do need to smell it first.

I bought a bag for my recent holiday on the understanding that it was leather. I was so disappointed when it arrived and I found that it was plastic.

Said bag has now been dispatched to the back of the wardrobe - I did use it on holiday but it really made me hot and irritable as it was a 'stylish' rucksack. Won't be making that mistake again - I would sooner have had a woven fabric one, at least it would have allowed for the circulation of air.

Sometimes it's called vegan leather which means it's plastic .

What does PU stand for?
It often used to be called ‘faux’ leather, presumably in the hope that a lot of people wouldn’t know the meaning of ‘faux’.

PS, my sense of smell isn’t quite what it was, but if unsure about whether something was leather or plastic, my nose used to be a pretty good guide.

I won’t buy leather, often it is sourced from awful suppliers. If it comes from overseas it’s likely to have come originally from places like India where the animal is often skinned alive. Italian leather is frequently sourced from there. It’s somebody’s skin. 🤢 Vegan leather these days isn’t bad quality at all. I’ve had some of my bags and shoes for years. Quality and kindness for me (and it’s cheaper)!

The leather industry is terrible environmentally and for the workers due to the toxic chemicals involved. There are some “ethical” companies about though. Plastic is awful too, but again more ethical companies around.

In my experience PU leather wears badly and doesn't last.

PU = polyurethane
So PU leather (or pleather)!

Polyurethane.

It’s a polymer.

Crossed posts. NonSpag

They should stop calling it leather.
It’s yet another thing given a label that doesn’t reflect its true origin or original meaning.

Leather is made from animal hide, while PU leather polyurethane leather is synthetic and made from plastic.

And plastic is made from oil! A fossil fuel which we are supposed to be cutting down on using.

I bought a Ted Baker bag & that smells so strongly of leather, that I have had to put it in another room at night (I put my bag next to my bed at night). Yes I bought a bag made of pu leather, flaked off after month where my arm had caught it

It's cheating and should not be allowed.

Don’t be fooled by the goods smelling of leather, the synthetic ones are artificial impregnated with a leather ‘smell’. There is a big industry in making artificial aromas: fresh bread, cut grass etc all made to entice you into believing something is the real thing.

In my experience real leather treated from time to time with saddle soap or mink oil lasts a very long time. PU 'leather' not so much. And leather breathes - remember imitation leather shoes?

There are vegan substitutes now that look and feel good, are far more environmentally friendly and last as long as animal leather. But that’s not the point, labelling should be honest for those who want real leather and just as important, for those who don’t.

Remember when cars had a seating material called Ambla that was supposed to be like leather. It probably wasn't as nasty as Vynide and Rexide that were used on many cheaper cars in the first half of the seventies, but it was still a form of plastic and could still get hot in the summer.

What legal loophole allows manufacturers to blatantly breach the trade description act with it seems impunity?

pu polyurethane
lost clients because i would not use any fake materials
any on a bike it does not protect

If you watched the Simon Reeve program on TV tonight and saw all the plastic waste there is, you wouldn’t be buying plastic, especially when it’s pretending to be leather.