Category: Leather

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Every natural product that goes through processing has been treated with chemicals to arrive at the final product for ages. The industrial revolution gave rise to increasing demands which further gave rise to manufacturing products quicker and cheaper.

One of the main products or “ingeredients” have been chemicals. And usage of harmful chemicals have over a period of time damaged our planet in irreversible ways. These chemicals have been poured out in our water bodies through direct dumping or have seeped in through to our undergroud water through soil seepage.

It is then no wonder that hearing the word chemicals usually inspires visions of  acids and other harmful chemicals. However, this is quite a myth, chemicals can be categorised as harmful and non harmful. For example: hair colors has “chemicals” but these are neither harmful for the environment nor humans. The food has “preservatives” which are also chemicals but these are edible and non harmful. 

The first step in leather manufacturing is the tannning process. Leather tanning over last few decades has come a long way and no longer requires usage of harmful chemicals.

In reality these can be termed as “tanning agents” 

As long as the leather is verified and certified eco friendly, nothing used in preparation of leather has neither harmed the planet nor humans. 

Can the Artificial leather industry manufacturing PU or polyurethene say this with confidence? It’s high time brands realize this and rather than generating profits on artificial leather completely move away from such toxic fabrics for the sake of the planet.  It’s not just time to think about it but take actions!  

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Most people when buying clothes or fashion accessories buy them because of their visual appeal, or how the style or the cut suits their body type, or if the cloth is soft enough or smooth or lightweight, or basically as per their own personal appeal

What almost no one ever checks for is the making of the garment, we don’t check if the thread is strong enough, or if the fusing is good quality or even if the cloth itself is great quality or not? This is mainly because when we buy from trusted brands we expect the garment to have a good quality cloth, with the best quality materials and technology used to manufacture it.

And this is where companies like Simran International come in. For almost half a century we have been manufacturing quality leather products and for almost two decades we have been exclusively manufacturing leather garments for some of the top brands in the world.

Today we are global leaders in B2B leather garment manufacturing because we have an uncompromising quality standard that we provide to our partner brands, which is passed on to their customers.

Today we are global leaders in B2B leather garment manufacturing because we have an uncompromising quality standard that we provide to our partner brands, which is passed on to their customers.

Each and every aspect of our garment manufacturing process is top notch and closely monitored, and not just that we use the best quality material to ensure that the final garment is top quality.  In this article,  would like to talk about 3 materials that pretty much go unnoticed by customers but are essential to the quality of the garment. These materials are thread, interlining and adhesive.

Thread

The thread pretty much goes unnoticed in any leather apparel.  But it is perhaps one of the most crucial elements in garment making. It is what is holds the apparel piece together. At Simran International,  use filament yarn for its natural strength.  The thickness of the thread has a direct correlation with the thickness of the leather, the tanning of the leather, and the finish of the leather. The objective is to have maximum strength in every stitch and let every stitch be visible like a diamond in a necklace.

Interlining

The second hidden item is Interlining. One of the only items which are totally invisible but one of the more important ones. Consider building your House without having termite protection on the wood or waterproofing on the roof. It’s invisible but its one of the most crucial aspects when constructing a building, without it the building has a lower life. The interlining serves pretty much the same purpose. It is the protection to the garment the maker is giving from the inside.

Simran International uses German-made interlining for providing support, to the leather from the inside.  The choice of interlining to be used is an applied science, which requires in-depth knowledge of apparel craftsmanship. Every wearable part of the apparel has a different role in terms of stretch, optic and fitting.  The interlining used in the lapel of the apparel piece cannot be the same as used in the hem and vice versa.  Only a skilled craftsman can use the interlining and fuse it perfectly with the garment

The Adhesive

Try building a house with low-quality cement & mortar. Scary, right?

Adhesive acts as a cement and mortar in garment manufacturing. It bonds the various parts together and holds it in place till the time thread stitching takes over. It is as important as thread and interlining.

Too much usage of mortar would make it leak through the house seams; too less would make the walls weak. Inferior quality would not hold the bricks together.

The right quality of “mortar” known as “adhesive” is very crucial for the garment.  In contrast to what many others would use which is a petroleum-based product, toxic in the factory environment and toxic to the garment user, an item made from a depleting natural resource. Simran uses a rubber extract-based adhesive. It’s non-toxic, environment-friendly, safe for the factory to store and completely natural for the user.  It ensures that there are no wrinkles in the leather panels; it holds the panels and therefore higher longevity.

I am reminded of a famous quote by John Ruskin that Quality is not an accident it is always the result of intelligent effort and at Simran, we are continuously making efforts to ensure that our products are always top quality.

As more and more people chose to adopt a vegan lifestyle, the demand for synthetic leather has gone up. And more often end up interlinking sustainability, environmental credentials, cruelty to an animal and ethical sourcing together. Leather is being considered “bad” while synthetic leather fabrics being used to manufacture various products are being considered as “good”.

But do we understand the environment of synthetic leather? PU or polyurethane is the most common alternative for leather, and PU is made from DMF (Dimethylformamide), a material that has not only been associated with toxicity to humans but also has a lifespan of more than 500 years, meaning it’s not biodegradable. Conversely not only is its wear is much shorter than actual leather, but it is also much more difficult to up-cycle or recycles than leather, and burning it to dispose of it only releases harmful carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.

Keeping in mind the above information, it would seem that synthetic leather actually does more harm than good.

Now here is an interesting fact for all the naysayers of Leather isn’t it? Another interesting fact is that the actual hide value in terms of the monetary value of an animal is only 3%, more than 93% of the animal is actually used for its meat

The relationship between the meat industry and leather industry is a symbiotic one. As long as the meat industry exists, they will continue to have animal hides as a waste product.

The relationship between the meat industry and leather industry is a symbiotic one. As long as the meat industry exists, they will continue to have animal hides as a waste product. Unfortunately, the current global supply of the hides has by far outstripped its demands. This has happened mainly due to 2 main reasons.

• ·  More and more economically growing countries have increased their demand for meat consumption· 

• The public outcry against leather products has led to a global decrease in the demand for leather goods.

The above reasons have not decreased the demand for meat anywhere, but in fact all it has done is leading to a dumping of the animal hides, which frankly is a waste. The meat industry left with a lesser and lesser demand for animal hides has resorted to either dumping the animal hides in landfills or worst burning them. Neither of these have any positive impact on the environment, in fact quite the opposite.

Leather is simply a by-product of the meat industry, and that too a mere 3%. The lack of knowledge amongst the public about leather and synthetic leather is actually causing more harm than good.

For any manufacturing industry the first level of processing is extremely critical. This is the process where the raw material is readied to be further run through value additions and processes to get the final product. For any manufacturing industry the first level of processing is extremely critical. This is the process where the raw material is readied to be further run through value additions and processes to get the final product.

This process is critical as the quality of the final product depends on it. If the process fails, the final product however meticulously manufactured will not have the desired quality.

Lets look at this through the simple example of a restaurant kitchen.

Ever visited a restaurant that does not have a kitchen? Ever noticed how the food from a restaurant that does not have kitchen, the food just does not feel really fresh? Or as if there is something wrong with the food. Typically you would find places like food courts and fast food places to have such set ups.

But a great restaurant has its own well-established kitchen, pantry and all the right and top quality equipment’s and only then they are able to serve quality fine dinning food. The same can be said about leather garment manufacturing as well.

Let’s look at some of main points why a leather manufacturing unit should ideally have it’s own tannery

• Quality Control
• Product Consistency
• Ability to experiment and come up with new techniques
• Control the tanning process to ensure its environment friendly 
• Control over origin of raw hide, to ensure that the skins are ethically sourced

We do not say that leather garments cannot be manufactured if you do not have your kitchen or tannery as is the case with leather, however, just like you cannot expect fine quality food from a restaurant that does not have its own kitchen, you cannot expect find quality leather garments from a leather garment manufacturer that does not have it’s own tannery.

It simply means that if you are tanning your own leather using, top quality equipment and resources that are well trained in the art of leather tanning, you create top quality leather, but if you outsource it, you can never be sure of it quality or the process being used.

You cannot have much control on quality, consistency, or even guarantee whether the leather is ethical, or environment friendly.

One of the advantages of Simran is that it’s a backward integrated company. Even before the garment division started, our leather tannery was set up and a solid foundation was laid before going vertical into garments. Simran knew that without a great kitchen, the food might not be as good.

Simran controls and ensures that raw material is ethically sourced, the tanning agents used to process the leather are environment friendly, the machinery used to manufacture the leather is state of the art.

Every ethically global brand realizes the importance of the “kitchen” and thus comes the importance of Simran vis a vis other companies.

How can leather come out of the pineapple?

Leather my meaning is a by-product of an animal.  How can an animal come out of a pineapple?

The right way to name it could be “pineapple fabric” which is an alternative to polyester or any made fabric?  how can fabric replace leather?

Leather has always been natural and organic thus fibre makers try to associate every natural fibre with leather to get the high reputation & perception as leather and associate the word “leather” to it.

Fashion industry has always been questioned for its ethics in manufacturing and producing the fashion consumables, whether it is environmental impact, human right violations or protecting animal rights.

The statistics for the above make it clear that moving towards better manufacturing and production standards is not just a better but the only good option. But ethical fashion, we have realized is less of an in or out category, but more of a spectrum. Where one brand might concentrate workers rights, another might concentrate on sourcing eco friendly fabrics.

Leather has been a center of many debates over the last few decades, where questions have been raised not only on the ethics of leather as a fashion product but also the impact of its production has on the environment.

The irony of these questions is that the ethics as far as the sourcing of skins or hides is concerned they do not apply to the leather industrybut the meat production industry. Leather is merely a by-product of the meat industry, a waste product that is then recycled.

Let me ask you; are we as the human race in its totality ready to become vegetarian? If not then the meat industry will exist and as long as the meat industry exists, we need the leather industry to recycle an otherwise waste product.

Let’s not confuse the leather industry with the Fur industry! It was the fur industry that promoted the slaughtering of animals for their skins, and yes that was unethical and that’s why also illegal now. Any leather that is manufactured purely for its skin and is not a by-product is not ethical.

Let’s not confuse the leather industry with the Fur industry! It was the fur industry that promoted the slaughtering of animals for their skins, and yes that was unethical and that’s why also illegal now. Any leather that is manufactured purely for its skin and is not a by-product is not ethical.

Now the second big question in this debate is the environmental impact of leather manufacturing. Over the years, there has been much technical advancement in the chemicals that are used for tanning hides. These chemicals are not harmful to the environment and thus do not contribute to water pollution.

Today, companies like Simran ensure that the leather manufactured by them is strictly a by-product of the livestock meat industry and they rely on the Meat industry to follow the global animal & husbandry legislatures and laws. THIS IS ETHICAL LEATHER.

Today, companies like Simran ensure that the leather manufactured by them is strictly a by-product of the livestock meat industry and they rely on the Meat industry to follow the global animal & husbandry legislatures and laws. THIS IS ETHICAL LEATHER.

It is a Governments job to ensure that the laws have been followed. The more developed the nation the more authentic the paperwork of the traceability leading it to be deemed as ethical leather. Any leather, which is not a part of the livestock chain, is UNETHICAL LEATHER unless government certified.

The authorities should be working towards ensuring and legalizing the meat producing plants so that more and more leather can ethically sourced.

There are countries where the laws are fluid; the countries that don’t even follow the Human rights leave aside animal rights.  These countries are NOT Simran vendors and Simran strongly condemns such leather usage where the source cannot be traced.

“oh! poor thing! She is blind! What will happen to her? Who will even marry her? We’ll have to look for another blind boy or a disables one at the least!”

“ I am sorry but we cannot employ you. You can’t even walk, how will you work?”

“He is deaf and mute, how can I employ him? My whole team will have to put in so much effort just to communicate one sentence with him! No! No! We can’t employ him, and it’s better for him only! Otherwise he’ll feel left out”

These are just a few examples of discriminatory behavior that disabled or as we called differently able people go through everyday, and not just in India, but across the world

Unfortunately this has been one of the biggest dichotomies of our society, for years we (and I mean the fully capable ones!  At least physically capable ones) have felt sad for them, felt bad for them, tried to understand their situation but slowly and subtly cast them away from us as if disability is a contagion that will affect us and our perfect vision of a society.

And while we celebrate Mankind’s resilience and capacity to succeed against all odds, we all but shun differently abled people from our society. And yet we forget, that some of the most brilliant minds have belonged to the “disabled”. We forget that they are incapable, nay..… limited only in their bodies not their minds.

How can we ever forget the contributions to our civilization, to our lives made by the likes of Stephen Hawking, who could not even speak without the aid of a machine, and yet was one of the most brilliant theoretical physicist the world has known, or Helen Keller, a blind and deaf woman, who went on to become a lecturer and an activist, not only that she was one of the leading hand in founding the American Civil Liberties Union, or Beethovon, who is till now considered the greatest composer ever, was deaf, he could now hear music let alone the one that he created and yet he created some of the best symphonies ever!

I can go on and on and the list is endless…. So the million-dollar question perhaps is when we have so many examples, why is it that disabled people while having the same rights as anyone are actually discriminated against?

But this is not the case anymore, after years of struggle by many pioneers and various norms and rules set up by governments across the globe the acceptance has started to come.

Companies like Simran International, today not only employ differently abled people, but whole heartedly accept them, what better example than the fact that their leader and CEO is differently abled person.

The company has flourished as a B2B global leader in the field of leather garment manufacturing under the leadership and guidance of Mr. Rajan Arora, who has suffered from stammering all his life, and yet he is not affected by it, not only that he is a brilliant orator and a great leader.

Over the last few years “Vegan Leather” has become a catch phrase for faux leather, the main reason for this are the “advancements” and “production improvements” that the faux leather industry has experienced over the last few years.

But what does that really mean? All it really means at the end of the day is that a consumer doesn’t really know what they are getting or buying.  Are they actually buying a product, which is safe for the environment?

Well!  Hallelujah! Lets get down to brass tacks and find out exactly how ethical and environment friendly faux leather is.

Mankind has always looked at certain animal species as a food source and in doing so, was left with the skins of the animals as a by-product. This product has been, since the beginning of civilization used for clothing, tents or even shoes.

You might be interested to know that most hides used in leather production cattle or lamb that was raised for beef, meat or milk….. they don’t just die to become your coats, or shoes or bags actually not using their hides could be considered wasteful!

So there you, folks! Real leather is nothing but a by-product of the meat industry!

So unless you and everyone else on this planet become a vegan. we will have animal hides available for leather manufacturing. Vegan leather on the other hand, oxymoronic as it sounds (leather by definition is a material derived from the hide of an animal) and there is nothing “Vegan” about this leather.

It is nothing but fabric, mind you I am going to refrain from calling it “leather” of any kind from this point on, that is derived from petroleum products, a derivative of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Polyurethane, which is plastic.  And we all know how environment-friendly plastic really, don’t we?

Environmentally speaking, vegan leather, er.. sorry.. vegan fabric being promoted as leather, is more harmful to the planet, as its essentially made of plastic, a non-biodegradable substance that will remain on the planet for a 1000 years. Whereas leather is a BY-PRODUCT of the Livestock industry, an item which is already prevailing and ready to be dumped into landfills if not properly used.  If the natural hide is left unprocessed, then it can lead to an epidemic. So the ethical question here really is “are we as a human race in totality ready to become herbivores?” If not, then leather will and should exist as a by-product of the meat industry.

Environmentally speaking, vegan leather, er.. sorry.. vegan fabric being promoted as leather, is more harmful to the planet, as its essentially made of plastic, a non-biodegradable substance that will remain on the planet for a 1000 years. Whereas leather is a BY-PRODUCT of the Livestock industry, an item which is already prevailing and ready to be dumped into landfills if not properly used.  If the natural hide is left unprocessed, then it can lead to an epidemic. So the ethical question here really is “are we as a human race in totality ready to become herbivores?” If not, then leather will and should exist as a by-product of the meat industry.

Companies like Simran in the leather industry are taking this by-product and converting into a consumable. Generating employment, reusing a prevailing item. Isn’t this what recycling is all about? At Simran we manufacture the leather to be environmental friendly not harming the planet at all. Also ensuring that leather is free from any chemicals harmful to the body for the consumer.

Making it fashionable. Making it biodegradable