When in the market for purchasing a new leather jacket or accessories, you should know how to tell a real and a fake apart. With the advancements in synthetic or fake leather manufacturing, it is becoming tougher for folks to buy materials made from genuine material. As leather apparel and accessories are luxurious and expensive, you don’t want to pay a premium price for faux material.
If you don’t want to purchase something that looks like something it is not, here are five ways to help you know if it is genuine.
Check the Label
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Every branded item has a label attached to them that tells the company they belong to. The same is with leather items – genuine leather products have a label indicating genuine. Today, the availability of faux leather products is on the rise; manufacturers want to speak out loud that they are selling genuine material. They are eager to show that their items are a real deal.
So, if you’re wondering whether you’re purchasing a genuine leather product or not, check it for a label. If it is, in fact, authentic, the label will be easy to spot. A real leather item will proudly say 100% real leather or full/top grain leather or genuine leather. Also, real leather is much more expensive than faux material.
Contrastingly, if the product has no label attached or says man-made material, it is most likely made from flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC). However, if relying on a label is not a strong ground for you, we hope the following tips will help you determine their authenticity.
Take a Close Look
If you’re still confused about the product’s authenticity, take a close look at it. As authentic leather is made up of natural material, i.e. real animal skin, its surface is not uniform. You’ll find an uneven surface while taking a close look at it. It will have blemishes and imperfections, which are good for leather products.
On the other hand, the surface of faux material is even and perfect. It has a uniform and regular texture, which indicates that the product is made using a machine. There must have been faults if it was built using real animal skin.
However, even after knowing about the texture of a real and a fake item, people still get duped because some manufacturers apply a faux grain pattern to a flexible PVC surface. And that’s how a faux item gets an authentic leather look. So, if you want to learn how to tell the two apart, you’ll have to do a lot of practical research.
Carry Out a Touch Test
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Doing a touch test is something we all do when purchasing in a store. It helps us know the fabric of a product and if we’ll be comfortable wearing it for a particular season. Similarly, we recommend you carry out a touch test before buying a leather item to differentiate a fake item from a real one.
As genuine leather is made up of natural material, it will not feel smooth when you run fingers across it. And when you press your fingers into the material, its surface will stretch and wrinkle a bit – same as our skin.
On the other hand, running fingers through a fake leather product will feel unnaturally even and cold. If you press the material, it will not stretch or wrinkle but depress under your fingers while retaining its original shape. In simple words, it will not act like skin; an authentic item does.
Take a Whiff of it
While it may seem funny and embarrassing standing in a store, taking a whiff of a leather item is a crucial thing to do. The smell of leather products is a strong indicator of their authenticity. Real leather has a distinct smell that is hard to replicate even using high-end machinery. If you’ve smelled genuine leather before, you’ll know what a leathery smell is.
Authentic leather has an organic, natural, skin-like scent that cannot be manufactured, at least not accurately. As there is no reliable method for replicating the smell of real leather, it is a huge indicator for telling the fake and real ones apart.
While authentic leather smells like skin, fake one smell of plastic and chemicals. Its scent is so evident that you can bet that it’s synthetic. You can practice with some products that you know are authentic for becoming familiar with the distinctive scent of real leather.
Scrutinize the Edges
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Another important factor that can help you tell a fake and a real product apart is the edges of the product. While a fake leather product has perfect, smooth edges, a product made of genuine material has a natural, coarse edge. As real leather items are generally human-made, they feel real. If you want to purchase stylish real leather jackets at affordable rates, please visit this site.
Examine the Pores
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The final trick to spot a fake leather product is identifying its pores. If the texture or pores of the item seem too good to be true, it is probably faux! Authentic leather products have an irregular, inconsistent pattern of pores because they are made from natural materials. On the other hand, the texture of manufactured or unnatural products is consistent, smooth, and simply perfect!
Final Words
With the above insights, we hope you’ll be able to figure out when the product in front of you is authentic and when it is fake. No one wants to spend thousands of bucks on a hoax product, so it is better that you learn how to tell the two materials apart.
You can further your skills by spending some free time comparing the material. With consistent practice, you’ll soon master the skill and be able to identify if the piece you’re buying is the real deal and worth the money! It will help you save a lot of time, money, and trouble when taking care of leather products.
