Material Gude

Discover the essence of our craftsmanship through the materials we carefully select for our products. From sustainable textiles to premium leathers, we ensure transparency in our process, empowering customers to make informed choices while embracing our products’ timeless beauty.


Leather
Our leather comes from the tanned rawhides of animals – most commonly cows, goats, or sheep – and is a by-product of the meat industry. We have committed to never using exotic skins due to their unacceptable risks regarding animal welfare. All products with a reptile effect use cow leather embossed and printed to look similar to exotic skins. Leather is sensitive to damage – the softer the leather, the easier it may scratch. The tanning process is, therefore, essential – it preserves and strengthens the rawhide and makes it supple and more pliable to work with. Below, we try to explain the differences in tanning processes that affect both you, those working with the leather, and our environment.
Suede is made when the leather is split, removing the outer grain and leaving behind a soft inner surface with long fibres and a smooth, velvety feel. However, since the inside of the hide is not as durable as the outer grain, suede is more susceptible to scratches and staining.

Chrome tanned leather
Chrome-tanned leather is the most popular way of tanning leather. It is a quick method and can achieve a finished product in days. The hides have been in acid, salt, chromium sulfate, and other chemicals. The leather is neither biodegradable nor environmentally friendly (the process results in toxic wastewater that negatively impacts the environment). However, from a product life cycle perspective, it is the most long-lasting. In addition, chrome-tanned leather is more resistant to water, heat, and stains.


Chrome free leather
Chrome-free leather is leather that has been manufactured without using chromium in the tanning process. Doing so means less pollution, cleaner waste streams, and improved biodegradability. The characteristics are similar to chrome-tanned leather but have a lighter environmental footprint. However, leathers made with this tanning agent require more chemicals to improve the material’s properties after tanning. For this reason, the effluent of the chrome-free process requires additional treatment before it can be used in production.


Leather Outsoles
Some of our shoes have leather outsoles. Leather-soled shoes look great and allow the foot to breathe, as they are a natural membrane. The leather has low wear resistance, so the leather sole may be deformed when worn in wet weather. Therefore, we highly recommend you visit the cobbler and put a protective rubber sole on top before first use to avoid tearing the sole and to get a better grip.

Non- Leather Materials
Vegan leather substitutes can be made from pineapple leaves, mycelium, cork, apple peels, other fruit waste, and recycled plastic. This material is often much thinner and far more lightweight than genuine leather. Therefore, it is less durable than leather and should be treated with extra care.
It’s important to note that most materials classified as “non leather” aren’t necessarily eco friendly. For example, the most commonly used materials to create faux leather are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), plastics made from fossil fuels. At Flattered, we continuously work towards entirely eliminating these types of materials from our offering.


Recycled Cotton
Recycled cotton enables waste to be reused more effectively. For example, cotton can be recycled from post-consumer garments or pre-consumer industrial waste, such as yarn or excess fabric, generated in garment production.
Cotton waste is sorted by colour, shredded, and blended into new fibres. The cotton fibers become shorter and weaker after recycling, so recycled cotton is often combined with a non-recycled fiber for strength. Because recycled cotton is not dyed, the energy and water used in production are typically lower than regular cotton.

Recycled Polyester
Recycled polyester production generates fewer CO2 emissions than virgin polyester and doesn’t require new petroleum as a raw material. Instead, the process takes something previously treated as waste – from pre-consumer sources such as fibre waste during the production of virgin polyester or post-consumer sources like PET bottles – and gives it a new life. Polyester material comprises at least 50% recycled polyester fibres and is certified by the Global Recycled Standard (GRS). GRS aims to reduce production’s harmful impact and ensure that materials used in the final product have been recycled and processed sustainably.


Recycled Nylon
Recycled nylon has the same benefits as recycled polyester: It diverts waste from landfills, and its production requires fewer resources than virgin nylon, which utilizes significant amounts of water, energy, and fossil fuel. The material comes from sources such as old carpets, leggings, or old fishing nets. These sources are an excellent solution for preventing garbage from landing in the ocean.


Recycled EVA
EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) foam or resin is a light and flexible material used for padding in shoe production. EVA foam is considered eco friendly because it is BPA (Bisphenol A) free and does not contain chlorides, heavy metals, phenols, latex, or other toxic substances. In addition, EVA foam products are soft, flexible, and resistant to chemical corrosion.

Cork
Cork is a natural material that has been used for over 5000 years. The material is obtained from the bark of a tree – the Cork Oak (Quercus suber L.) – a slow-growing, evergreen oak that flourishes only in specific regions of the Western Mediterranean (Portugal, Spain, southern France, parts of Italy, North Africa) and China. Cork is considered to be a renewable or sustainable material because harvesting it doesn’t require the cutting down of any trees.