What Is PU Leather, And Is It Better Than The Real Thing?

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PU leather is artificial leather polymer made of polyurethane, which is a type of plastic. It's 100 percent vegan because it has no animal skin, unlike genuine leather. If you want to make sure no animals were harmed in the making of your products, just make sure what you buy has no leather mixed in, including bicast leather, which does have animal skin.

According to Dan Weller, founder of Philadelphia-based Liberty Leather Goods, there are two types of PU leather: full-synthetic and semi-synthetic (also known as 100 percent PU leather or split leather, respectively).

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Semi-synthetic PU leather is made of a natural leather base with a dried PU plastic mixture on top. The full-synthetic PU leather features a plastic coating applied over a base fabric material, which is usually more plastic or polyester. Only the full synthetic option is totally vegan. Weller says you can usually look at the underside of the material to see what the base material is.

"The PU layer is often stamped with a grain pattern to simulate the look of real leather," he says.

leather upholstery
Genuine leather tends to come in fewer colors than PU leather and shows more imperfections in the grain as well. SimoneN/Shutterstock

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