Suede / Suede General
Suede leather belongs to the so-called rough leathers. Its characteristic feature is its roughened, sanded, velvety surface. The term "suede" is often used erroneously, as it actually only refers to leather from wild animals. However, it has become generally accepted for all rough leathers.
Production of suede
With suede, either the back of the leather (the flesh side facing the animal) is roughened or the leather is split to create two rough surfaces.
Differentiation of different types of velour
Suede can be differentiated according to various aspects, such as the area of use (clothing suede, shoe suede, etc.), type of raw material (cow suede) and quality (suede, split suede).
Suede vs. nubuck leather
Like suede, nubuck is a rough leather. Unlike suede, nubuck leather is sanded on the grain side, i.e., the upper side of the leather. Because the fibers on the upper side of the leather are finer and shorter than those on the underside, the pile created by sanding the leather is finer, and the natural grain remains visible.
You can find more information about the different types of leather in this video:
additional sources (accessed: 08.01.2019)
- Collonil(dot)com/blog/leather-material/cleaning-all-suede-shoes-made-of-nubuck-and-velours
- lederzentrum (dot)de/wiki/index.php/Veloursleder
- lederinfo(dot)de/index.php/Rauleder_(Rauhleder),_Suede,_Veloursleder_(Velourleder),_Nubuk_oder_Nubukleder
- wikipedia(pinkt)org/wiki/suede
