What does Vegetable Tanned Leather mean?

As a fashion brand that designs and creates products, one of SHISAKO’s core principles is to use sustainable and eco-friendly materials. 

Sourcing materials is a very complex area that we choose to take our time on. We would like to share with our community what is done behind the scenes to protect our planet while creating the minimalist pieces that are both wearable and versatile.

SHISAKO chooses leather when creating the bags and heels. This is because leather is long lasting and breathable. Before any leather can be used it must go through a tanning process to ensure it does not rot in your closet over time.

The leather we source goes through a tanning process called, vegetable tanning which is one of the first processes used, historically. The vegetable tanning process takes time as it uses natural substances such as tree bark.

But as the world became more advanced a process called chrome tanning was introduced. This new chrome process cut down the tanning time that the leather needed to be protected for use, along with lowering the costs. However, the effluents from the chrome is negatively affecting the waterways and soil near tanneries.

Vegetable tanning is still an option today but it is not commonly used due to the higher cost with the longer amount of time needed to process the leather. It takes weeks versus days to process the leather because vegetable tanning uses fewer chemicals than the typical chrome-tanned leather.

At SHISAKO, we want to ensure that our community and customers understand what goes into making the leather wearable. Our leather uses one of the oldest tanning methods because we want to protect our water to be able to drink it and swim in it with confidence.

This is just one principle important to us: sourcing sustainable and eco-friendly materials.