What Is Pu Leather?

PU leather is a faux leather polymer made from polyurethane, which is a type of plastic. It is 100% vegan because it has no animal hide, unlike real leather. If you want to ensure that no animals were harmed in the making of your product, just make sure the product you buy has no leather mixed in, including double cast leather, which does have animal hide.

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

Semi-synthetic PU leather is made from a natural leather base with a dry PU-plastic blend on top. Fully synthetic PU leather features a plastic coating on a base fabric material that is typically more plastic or polyester. Only the fully synthetic option is completely 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 printed with a grain pattern to simulate the look of real leather,” he says.

Genuine leather tends to have less color and more imperfections in the grain than PU leather.