This is a question that we are asked a lot, and largely people are confused because it isn't one thing. It is best defined by what it is not... it is not derived from animals.
Firstly, just the term vegan leather is an oxymoron, if it is vegan it can't be leather and if it is leather it can't be vegan. So really we should be calling it a vegan leather alternative... but that just takes too much time. Some people also call vegan leathers 'sustainable leather alternatives' but be careful of this one, a vegan material isn't necessarily sustainable. More on this in a moment.
Secondly, fire-hose is vegan! It contains no animal derived materials and we do not use animal derived glues, trim, or lining... so our entire fire-hose collection is vegan. You can read our full post on that here.
Here are a few examples of 'vegan leathers' to give you a flavour of how diverse the range is and how you really need to interrogate each one to find out if it is truly delivering what you are after.
Pleathers - The first leather substitutes have been around since the dawn of the polymer age because that is essentially what they are, they are plastic. PVC, polyurethane, nylon....
Frankenpleathers - This is my least favourite group... these are composite materials that are very hard if not impossible to recycle. This is when you marry up two types of material in such a way that they can't be shredded, melted, and made again. You can do this with straight plastic, but not a nylon reinforced polymer or synthetic rubber (like fire-hose, which is why we have to rescue and reuse it!). I would never, ever manufacture a material like this, they need to be phased out. Some examples include naugahyde, truck tarpaulins, and a lot of the 'vegan leathers' that you see on the market. If a natural material like cotton or cactus or any of the 'fruit' leathers is coated in plastic then it is a frankenfibre and we have no recycling for that.
Natural materials - Now leather is a natural material. We have been using animal skins for shoes longer than we have been the dominant homo sub-species. But not all leather is natural, a lot of it is treated with pretty hideous chemicals and / coated in polymer! The natural materials I find more interesting are cork, waxed canvas... but again, ask about coatings. What kind of wax? Were any adhesives used?
Biosynthetics - This is the future, naturally derived, grown, processed (hopefuly with renewable energy) and totally biodegradable. There are some mycelium examples that are quite interesting and also some made from agricultural waste like Mirum and Treekind. We are actually working on something ourselves - and it could be special... entirely derived from a waste that is currently clogging up landfills in the UK to the tune of 6000 tonnes each year!
Now back to that thorny sustainability question. The most sustainable materials are the ones that already exist. Reduce consumption first, buy second hand, or focus on reuse, like we do. Plastic is a fossil fuel, using it prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels (making it inherently unsustainable). Even if you can recycle it doesn't mean it won't shed microplastics in this life or in its next iteration so really, if there are any new polymers involved then it is a no. A purely recycled polymer piece is still a no from me. I would only go for rescued. And then we get to the mixed fibres. Ask the material manufacturer, can this be recycled, and if so by who? You need hard proof that they have planned for the death of the novel material they have created... The natural materials may not be entirely sustainable either, they may use too much land or water or pesticides in their production so ideally we all need to learn to ask about what it means to be regenerative. If you want our take on that you can find it here.
Essentially you need to ask, you need to interrogate. You need to find out if you can see their production facility, meet the makers, see all of the processes involved. And I know that this takes time but that is great too! It slows everything down and another truly unsustainable thing about fashion is the pace and volume.... the churn. Slow down, ask questions, invest in rescue!
