My Small Store is a proud reseller of the Australian leather handbags designed and crafted by Sata Fashion.
This designer is based in Melbourne, Australia and focuses on becoming the top genuine leather producer. I think they reached the top already, just look at their bags!
Ok, I got many complaints about these bags not being #VEGAN and what about the welfare of the cows and so on and so forth.
As a reminder, in 2020 the world consumed 130 billion pounds of beef, during the same period and according to a 2020 survey by Swissveg, there were 5.1% vegetarians and 1% vegans. Meaning that at least 93% of the world population eats meat and or fish, thus many cows were harvested for their meat.
Their skin or cowhide is a byproduct of meat and dairy products. No cow or other animals are slaughtered for their skins, not even snakes. Maybe crocodiles, but I doubt it. I lived long enough in Africa to know the volume of meat consumed from these reptiles.
Something that makes me smile is we often pick “synthetic leather” because it’s better for animals and the environment.
Most of the time synthetic leather is made of Polyurethane (AKA PU) which is an 100% chemical product made from fossil fuels thus plenty of carbon dioxide is emitted during production – about 3.7 lbs of CO2 per pound of raw PU produced as much as burning a gallon of gasoline. I am not talking about producing PU which is far from being non-toxic. In Europe and the US we made significant progress but many Chinese PU plants do not have any of our regulations thus can be, are I should say very polluting.
I see you are interested in plant based PU, right? Well, land back on earth quickly. These PU are in their infancy and mostly used for insulation. My major concern is that they do not use the plant, they extract oil (mechanical and chemical process) from the plant which needs to be produced in enormous quantities = chemical fertilizers, pesticides, water over consumption, natural land loss etc…
Yes, there a few companies who are producing a PU with tree bark and fruit peels, recycled airbags, and plastic bottles but always remember anything processed needs energy, water and pollutes.
Why Leather Handbags?
As already said, cowhide, mutton, goat, and pork skins are byproducts, thus renewable. Harvested animals byproducts are used in manufacturing soap, glue, fertilizer, gelatin, medicines and other products.
Many cry at the heavy metal pollution caused by the tanning process , they refer to the good old industrial age Chromium tanning, which is still used in China and other part of the world to produce cheap leathers. Many manufacturers use the “new” vegetable tanning.
Do you know when this “new” process was invented? It’s quite recent. It was discovered in Sumer (modern day Iraq and Kuwait) around 5,000 years ago. The hides were then soaked in water containing Mimosa bark, leaves and soaked in this water. The leather was used to make primitive clothing, which kept the wearer warm, provided camouflage, and allowed them to transport their belongings.
It’s in 1858 that chrome tanning was invented by the German engineer Friedrich Knapp and Hylten Cavalin from Sweden. However, it was an American chemist called Augustus Schultz who first patented the chrome tanning process. In the following decades, chrome tanning became the most common and dominant form of tanning as it doesn’t need any technical skills to process.
Why leather handbags? it comes from a renewable source, it can be processed an eco-friendly way and does not involve petroleum or heavy chemical industry.
Sata Fashion produces leather handbags in the eco-friendly way. True that an Australian designed and clean crafted bags are more expensive than a cheap made with chromium tanning leather you can find on AliExpress. Many genuine leather handbags can be found for less than $60 with reviews such as “stunk for months” or “the smell is so bad I have to leave it in the garage.”
