Vegan leather?

I’d like to see and handle one before buying. If it was nice to the touch and seemed durable I would try one.

I’m not vegan, but I’m vegetarian for religious reasons and try to stay away from leather goods. I’ve bought a couple of actual leather straps, though, simply because it seems impossible to find vegan ones that are within my budget.

Most of the time I've seen something advertised as vegan leather, it's "PU Leather". That is, Polyurithane. Plastic.

There are probably others, but if you end up searching for vegan leather--regardless of your reasons--be advised.

"Vegan leather" used to be called fake leather... I really can't fathom how nowdays you can charge extra for what used to be the cheaper "poor mans" option to leather. I saw this while shopping for a strap a while back.

I believe Cartier uses vegan leather for the SolarBeat Tank, and if it’s good enough for Cartier…

I'm vegan and have yet to find any vegan leather straps that are any good.

I stick to rubber, sailcloth, bracelets or I'm happy to buy secondhand leather straps from eBay.

Do you have any idea how difficult to source is vegan leather? You have to hide for days near carrot juice outlets before you can bag one with a spear thrower.

Jokes aside, I have some vegan leather straps from ColaReb. They may be vegan but it sure doesn't feel like leather.

So called vegan leather is a non starter with me.

I’ve handled some fantastic vegan leather straps made from some sort of apple leather. I’m sure there’s other good options available that just haven’t been widely reviewed.

Im vegetarian - and recently started (badly) making leather watch straps - I approached a local leather furniture manufacturer and he lets me have offcuts that would otherwise been thrown away. Not quite vegan, but Im using leather that is already produced, and eventually when my skill improves will be making usable products from scrap/waste material.

I'm not vegan, but picked up a strap made from pineapple. It's not soft like leather, but it's not bad. It's easy to find straps made from 'ocean' plastic, which hopefully is more than someone dipping water bottles in the sea... 😂

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1070758614/vegan-watch-strap-band-made-of-actual

Leather itself for the most part is a waste material! The vast majority of cowhides are from the meat industry

Vegan leather is fancy marketing for plastic. Leather is a byproduct of the meat industry. People are always going to eat meat so to me it seems wasteful to not use the entirety of the animal. Also leather is biodegradable.

I tried, nay, i have a black vegan leather strap for my cartier tank large.

It’s not better than my “real” leather straps, but it is comfortable and great looking.

I will not buy anything explicitly labeled as vegan purely because it is a excuse to charge well over the odds for something. I will however purchase traditional non leather products like rubber or man made fibre straps.

Vegan "leather" is no more leather than oat "milk" is milk.

We have enough actual fascists today without declaring people who eat steak as fascists. I love when people who don't have any oppression have to make some to feel better........

At least turkey bacon is actual meat.

Think of the Naugas!

As long as it looks good and lasts a while that’s all I care about quite honestly.

I voted yes, i care about the material.

But that doesn't mean i need animal leather. I care about the material, to be durable and of high quality. For example Hirsch makes Straps with old leaves.

And they are absolutely amazing!

Not quite Watch related but bear with… historically I’d have said no. However, I was shopping recently in Stella McCartney with my mum for bags for her birthday. We were both blown away with how soft, subtle and thick the leather was. Then remembering as a McCartney she’s vegan and it was actually this crazy material that’s grown from mushrooms or something. Long story short. It feels bloody awesome and a watch strap made of that material would be AMAZING!

Meat or not, it is very much NOT bacon. 🤢🤮

If I’m eating a burger, which I do regularly, it would be a waste to throw out the leather.

I've heard there are some plant based leathers, including some made from cacti which seem to be quite promising, and much better quality than cheaper cowhide leathers like "genuine leather". I would always buy hide over plastic-based ones, but if there's a good quality plant-based one I'm all for it. Leather is one of those materials that is incredibly useful and handy, but also very hard to accurately replicate for all its uses.

Been veggie since 1982.

I see vegan leather the same as all the meat substitutes - marketing for the snowflake generation who will probably be all preachy for the 3-4 years they're vegan 🤯

I use NATO 99% of the time, bracelet rarely.

My poshest straps are Colareb eco-suede (alcantara), highly recommended & very comfortable

The vegans crack me up. Leather is in abundance and men having been carnivores for tens of thousands of years. It’s ridiculous. Wear what you want. If it’s vegan then it’s made from a petroleum product or from soybeans. If the plant soybeans they kill everything in the field when planting. Again, ridiculous

Vegan leather???

Piss off! 😂

All my watch straps are vegan and Iam always looking to add more. Analog shift, colareb, delugs, hodinkee, and watchgecko have vegan offerings.

I'm not vegan, but I am a fan of material science. I really don't like plastic leather, but the plant-based materials are already catching on. Several big fashion brands are starting to use them to make real products. Mushroom (ie. mycelium) leather seems to be a popular one for example.

If it's durable and well made I'm all for it. I think it's only a matter of time before these new materials catch on. I see no harm in trying them especially if they're more efficient and cheaper to make. Maybe it's not the case now, but once a product becomes widely adopted price and efficiency tend to follow. So it remains to be seen.