What is vegan leather made of?

The quest for a cruelty-free alternative to animal leather has been a hot topic in the fashion industry. Some examples include H&M’s pineapple leather and Stella McCartney’s vegetarian leather. A new addition to the cruelty-free alternatives is SAMARA‘s apple leather products. The company uses waste apple skins from the juicing industry and makes over a dozen products, including tote bags, laptop sleeves and shoulder bags. This ecologically-minded brand is working towards going completely plastic-free. However, they currently still have to rely on a hint of polyurethane (PU) as a binding agent.

SAMARA is also committed to a safe living environment for children in East Africa, who usually have to depend on carcinogenic kerosene lamps to do their homework. A portion of SAMARA’s revenue goes toward providing solar-powered backpacks to children so that they can avoid using the cancer-causing lamps.