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HalfysReddit t1_ix53gbj wrote

Honestly the thing is you can't go to a typical retail store and buy a leather belt. They sell "genuine leather" belts, but "genuine leather" can literally be cardboard wrapped in vinyl (so it looks like leather but that's it). Despite its name, "genuine leather" is actually the lowest quality material that can be legally advertised as leather.

I bought my belt from a biker looking dude at the farmers market like eight years ago, it's warped a little from the way pants pull on it but it's still going strong, and I honestly can't imagine it will break in my lifetime. I'm sure there are online specialty shops that sell real leather belts.

Leather is a very strong material, your body weight really isn't enough to break it, so if your belts aren't holding up then it's most likely because they're not actually leather. A good leather belt is a buy it for multiple lifetimes product.

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bluesatin t1_ix5wwwd wrote

Genuine leather just means something is actual leather and not faux-leather, it's not some sort of grade of low-grade leather like people commonly repeat for some reason.

Something like full-grain leather is considered genuine leather.

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HalfysReddit t1_ix696fp wrote

Yes but if the best thing you can say about your product is it meets the legal criteria for being called leather, it brings to question why that would be your selling point.

There are grades of leather, and yes you could call them all genuine, in practice anything advertised as "genuine leather" instead of "top grain leather" or "full grain leather" is just meeting the minimum legal standard for calling itself leather.

You can definitely make a product that is 99% cardboard and plastic and 1% animal hide and call it genuine leather. Pretty much every cheap fast-fashion belt I've ever seen was built this way.

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nstarleather t1_ix6aphb wrote

Actual labeling laws won’t let you label a mostly plastic product “leather” the worst leather you’ll see called “genuine” (if they’re not breaking the law) will be something called a “finished split” which is basically painted suede.

Calling each type of leather a grade is actually the biggest myth in the industry. You can't contact a tannery to buy "genuine leather" as a specific thing.

All leather is Genuine, all leather that's not suede (bottom split) is top grain and top grain that hasn't been sanded (corrected) is full grain. The terms encompass one another.

The breakdown you sometimes see calling genuine, top grain and full grain grades is actually more like: "This is the worst you can expect with each of these terms in the description"...but unfortunately people have taken it as each term being a separate distinct type of leather which from an industry standpoint is simply not true; you can't call up a tannery and buy "genuine leather". So it's entirely possible for a company to say "genuine leather" in their brief description and then say top grain or full grain (and even more descriptors) when you click further (this was the case with an Article couch I bought).

There are also makers in other categories that use it just to separate it from synthetic Red Wing is a good example with an excellent reputation and they actually own a tannery: https://imgur.com/a/Tdtbjge

The “quick and dirty” full grain>top grain>genuine really only applies when you can’t find more info about the tannery or company making the item. There are top grain leathers and even suedes that come from top tier tanneries that I’d take any day over “full grain” cheap tanneries making leather for some of the big “fashion”brands.

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PowerandSignal t1_ix59ynx wrote

Ithaca?

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HalfysReddit t1_ix5cgpa wrote

I'm honestly not familiar with that.

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PowerandSignal t1_ix6fh04 wrote

It's a pretty lively farmers market in the city of Ithaca, NY. I've gotten some belts from a biker looking dude there. They're great! But I guess there's more than one biker looking dude selling leather products at farmers markets.

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HalfysReddit t1_ix6ve0o wrote

Oh lol, no this was in Maryland and I've seen the dude there years later so I'm pretty sure he's a local.

Does not shock me at all that bikers selling leather goods would be a common farmer's market staple haha

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