<story><title>America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-18/america-is-obsessed-with-beef-but-it-has-no-use-for-hides-so-leather-prices-plunge</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stonogo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d be interested to know how much of this has to do with the dilution of the meaning of &amp;#x27;leather&amp;#x27; in terms of consumer goods.  The market is flooded with garbage products, which are produced by slicing a thin veneer of leather and gluing it to a plastic backing, which is then sold as &amp;quot;bonded leather.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#x27;s gotten so bad that full-grain leather products are exceedingly rare.&lt;p&gt;Since 90% of &amp;quot;leather&amp;quot; products are such awful garbage, it&amp;#x27;s not surprising to me that consumers have abandoned the sector en masse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xahrepap</author><text>I had a really awesome leather belt that I got when I was 15. I stopped wearing it when I was 30 because my weight finally out outgrew the belt. Still have it. It&amp;#x27;s no worse today than it was when I got it as a teen.&lt;p&gt;I go through about a belt a year now. Because I always seem to end up with this crap you describe. Even if I try to avoid it. Guess I need to do a better job looking... Or just lose some weight so I can use that same belt for another 15years.</text></comment>
<story><title>America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-18/america-is-obsessed-with-beef-but-it-has-no-use-for-hides-so-leather-prices-plunge</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stonogo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d be interested to know how much of this has to do with the dilution of the meaning of &amp;#x27;leather&amp;#x27; in terms of consumer goods.  The market is flooded with garbage products, which are produced by slicing a thin veneer of leather and gluing it to a plastic backing, which is then sold as &amp;quot;bonded leather.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#x27;s gotten so bad that full-grain leather products are exceedingly rare.&lt;p&gt;Since 90% of &amp;quot;leather&amp;quot; products are such awful garbage, it&amp;#x27;s not surprising to me that consumers have abandoned the sector en masse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Clubber</author><text>There is a grading system for leather. &amp;quot;Genuine&amp;quot; leather is a deceptive marketing term designed to sell shit leather as quality.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joojoobs.com&amp;#x2F;leather-grades&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joojoobs.com&amp;#x2F;leather-grades&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>