Here's how to figure out what's best for your brand: Full grain or split?

If the previous articles have allowed you to start visualizing your belt collection, with this we add one more piece.

Yes, because deciding whether your belt will be shortened or not is only the first of the choices you have to make and perhaps also the most logical; all of the following depend on the identity of your brand and we can say that they are choices more from the heart than from the head.

Today, therefore, we add a new, fundamental element talking about leathers.

As I have also told you in previous articles, I am a manufacturer, so I have no preferences on the use of one material rather than another: it all depends on you and the DNA of your brand. In fact, each material has its own particularities and enhances certain types of brands: sporty, elegant, casual.

Basically, you may find yourself faced with two macro-types of leathers: full grain and split. You have certainly heard of it before, but how many of your suppliers have explained to you in detail which one would be best to use based on your brand identity?

Usually they base everything always and only on the price range, but this is only one of the variables that you must consider when choosing the material.

But let's proceed in order: cowhide is a very thick leather that cannot be worked in leather goods or even only in belts as it is because it is too thick and rigid and therefore needs to be split into two parts, as if it were a sandwich. The superficial part of the epidermis is what is called full grain while the underlying part, which is pure fiber, is called split leather.

Only 15% of cowhides can be used as full grain because, using only the most superficial layer, the appearance must be perfect without scars or defects; this type of leather, in fact, cannot be worked or covered so your brand must be adaptable to that slight variance between one belt and another, as well as between one leather and another.

If your brand is casual, sporty or vintage this can be an added value but it must adapt to a fairly high price range because it is the finest leather that can exist.

If, on the other hand, your brand cannot accept a variance between one product and another, a rule that applies for example to haute couture brands that cannot give two people two slightly different products, we will always use a full grain, but which is called corrected grain; the surface is slightly reworked so as to remove all defects and make it uniform also using a print that simulates the grain of the leather.

So if you have a medium-high price range I will direct you to the full grain; if you have a casual, vintage or sporty style we will work with full grain while if your style is elegant or classic we will work with the corrected grain.

If, on the other hand, you have a lower price range, I suggest you stay on the splits.

Being pure fiber, it cannot be used as it is, it must be reworked. How?

There is almost no limit to the imagination; in fact, the split is an aping of full grain but in a low cost price range so depending on the identity of your brand we will choose the style that best suits it.

In this case, unlike full grain, there are no constraints depending on your style: you can use the split whether it is a sports brand or an elegant brand.

In the next article I will show you some examples so that you can better visualize your new collection of belts.

If you need to clear your mind about your belt collection, feel free to write me on Whatsapp.

💬 SEND A WHATSAPP MESSAGE TO ME💬