Bonded leather, patchwork leather jackets

Hi everyone, it’s been a few days since my last post. Been real busy, you know how that goes! Well today I wanted to talk about bonded leather, or patchwork leather jackets. Actually I wanted to explain just what it is, and why you should avoid it at all cost. You can find a lot of them out there, many with really fancy names.

Some of the names they use for bonded leather is Giovanni Navarre, Italian stone design, Italian Mosaic Design, brick work leather, patchwork leather, Napoline Roman Rock Design, Diamond Plate leather, Embassy leather and a few more I can’t recall right now. They use this leather to make anything; jackets, vest, purses, gloves, saddle bags, you name it.

So what is bonded leather vs genuine leather? Is bonded leather really leather at all? Well yes, it is, but only in the same way a Ford Escort is like a Mustang! When you take the hide of a cow and lay it flat, there are areas of it that are the best parts for making quality leather. Once you cut those areas out, what is left is lots of small pieces.

Those pieces include the belly leather,which is very weak, the neck parts, flank, rump and other places. Basically it’s the left over waste leather after the good parts are cut out. Bonded leather is made of those pieces of leather. What they do is feed them into a machine that sews them all together into one big sheet, sort of like how you make plywood!

Then they cut this leather into jackets, vest and whatever else they want to make it into, and slap a fancy name on it. They also coat it with stuff that’s more or less paint. They try to make it glossy looking, and hope that the coating will waterproof all those stitches. But over time all those stitches get weak, bend and start to come apart.

So, the coating starts to flake off, leaving patches of bare, cardboard looking leather! The leather has been treated so it is very dry, and will soak up water like a sponge. Bonded leather looks like something that guy was making in that movie silence of the lambs! Also they use cheap hardware, so soon you have rusted, non working zippers and buttons.

The truth is, bonded or patchwork, or Italian stone design leather jackets, vest and any other leather item made like that is cheap crap! The people that sell those can buy a bonded leather jacket for around $8.00 bucks, then they have the nerve to sell it for $80.00 or so. Unless you shop on ebay, where you can buy them for $16.00 bucks or so.

The old saying you get what you pay for is never more true when your talking about leather jackets and other leather items. Don’t waste your money on a cheap bonded or patchwork leather item with a fancy name. They are stiff, weigh a ton due to all the pieces and stitching, bulky, leak and will soon fall apart and the coating will flake off.

So now you know what bonded leather, or patchwork leather is, and the fancy names some go by to sweeten the smell of,,, bull. If you really want to waste your money on one, fine. Just don’t stand near me, I’d hate to have people think I know you!!!