The present disclosure relates to stretch leather composites, and more particularly to methods of making stretch leather composites including an animal skin laminated with a stretch fabric.
Stretch leather composites including a soft leather laminated with glue to an elastic fabric are used in various consumer products, such as footwear, apparel, clothing and the like, as an alternative to other stretch materials having less desirable aesthetic characteristics. Existing methods for preparing stretch leather composites include laminating an elastic fabric to leather with glue. These methods include inefficiencies and processing challenges introduced at least by variations in degree of stretch of the elastic fabric during the lamination process and difficulties inherent in handling the stretch fabric during the lamination process. Moreover, stretch leather composites produced by pre-existing methods can lose their shape after being repeatedly stretched.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement to produce stretch leather composites that address these disadvantages of pre-existing methods.