Vegan Leather Alternatives, and What They Are Really Made Of
Pineapple, apple, cactus, mushroom and corn: what each leather alternative contains, which still rely on plastic, and the percentage worth asking about before you buy.
Ask for the percentage first
Almost every "plant leather" on sale is a composite: some plant material, bound and finished with a polymer, laid on a textile backing. That is not a scandal. It is how you make a sheet that flexes ten thousand times without cracking. But it means the plant in the name tells you what is in the material, not how much of it there is.
So the most useful question about any leather alternative is a dull one. What percentage is bio-based, and what is the rest? A brand that can answer knows its supplier. A brand that cannot has bought a name. Everything below is animal-free and passes our materials gate. The differences are in plastic content, durability and how much the brand is willing to tell you.
Polyurethane and PVC
Most vegan leather is polyurethane (PU): a polymer coating on a fabric backing. It is cheap, light, easy to colour and emboss, and it is what most "vegan leather" bags and shoes are made of, whatever the swing tag implies. PU is the material behind JW PEI's bags, for example, and ROMBAUT's "Beyond Leather" bag turns out to be listed as 100 per cent PU.
PVC is the older alternative and the one most worth avoiding. It is stiffer, relies on plasticisers to stay supple, and brings chlorine chemistry into manufacture and disposal. If a label says PVC, or "vinyl", you have found the bottom of the range.
The best-performing synthetics are microfibre PU: a dense non-woven microfibre backing under a PU surface, much closer to leather in how it breathes, creases and wears. Vegetarian Shoes builds much of its range on the Vegetan microfibres, and Native Shoes uses Clarino Tirrenina. If you want a shoe that lasts years rather than seasons, this is usually the material to look for.
Piñatex, from pineapple leaves
Piñatex is made by Ananas Anam from the fibre of pineapple leaves, which are left over after the fruit harvest. The maker publishes its composition: the base is 80 per cent pineapple leaf fibre and 20 per cent PLA, a plant-derived bioplastic. The finish is where it varies. The Original and Mineral grades carry a water-based PU resin that makes up about 10 per cent of the total material. The Performance grade uses PU and bio-based PU at about 42 per cent.
Ananas Anam is candid that Piñatex is not fully biodegradable. The base is, under industrial conditions, and the coating is not. NAE Vegan Shoes uses Piñatex on its London high-top, and Vegetarian Shoes sells a Piñatex style.
Apple-based leathers
Apple leathers use pomace, the pulp left after juicing, dried and ground into a powder. The best known was sold as AppleSkin, made by Mabel in Italy and since renamed UPPEAL. Retailers who stock it describe it as roughly 30 per cent apple waste, combined with polyurethane on a polyester and cotton backing. Other apple materials exist with different ratios, so ask.
LaBante London makes its Sophie tote in apple leather, and NAE uses AppleSkin alongside Piñatex.
Cactus
Desserto, from Mexico, is made from the nopal cactus. The company now says its most advanced materials are 90 per cent bio-based, built on its own bio-polymer made from cactus proteins rather than conventional plastics. As with any maker that sells several grades, a product made "with cactus leather" may not use the most advanced one. The brand selling you the bag should be able to tell you which.
Grape, corn and other farm waste
The same principle turns up in grape marc from winemaking (Vegea is the best-known name) and in corn waste. Veja's Campo trainer is cut from a corn-based alternative, which is why the Campo is animal-free even though Veja as a brand is not. These are typically bio-based content blended with a polymer, and the blend varies by product.
Mushroom leather, for now
Mycelium, the root network of fungi, can be grown into sheets that feel remarkably like leather. Mylo, made by Bolt Threads, reached products from Stella McCartney and adidas in 2021 and 2022. In 2023 Bolt Threads paused Mylo production, saying the economic climate had made it too hard to raise the capital needed to scale up. Other mycelium companies are still working on the material, but it remains scarce.
If a shop tells you a product is made from mushroom leather, ask who made the material. It is a fair question and the answer is short.
The plastic-free options
Two alternatives contain no plastic at all:
- MIRUM, made by Natural Fiber Welding in the United States from natural rubber, plant oils and waxes, natural pigments and minerals. The company calls it the world's first plastic-free alternative to leather. It is used in small runs by a handful of brands.
- Cork, the bark of the cork oak, sliced thin and laid on a cotton or synthetic backing. On a cotton backing it is entirely plant-based. It does not look like leather and does not try to, which some people count as a feature.
"Recycled leather" is still leather
Watch for "recycled leather", "bonded leather" and "reconstituted leather". All three are made from leather fibres or offcuts, ground and re-bound. They may be good uses of waste, but they are made from animals, and our gate counts them exactly as it counts a new hide. Since September 2026 the same goes for recycled wool and recycled cashmere, which we explain on our standard page.
How long will it last?
It depends far more on the construction than on the headline material. The failure you will see on cheap PU is peeling. The surface coating breaks down over time and parts from the backing, fastest where it flexes. Microfibre-backed materials resist this much better, and a thicker, better-bonded coating lasts longer than a thin one. Keep alternatives out of direct heat, wipe rather than soak them, and let shoes dry naturally.
For a longer comparison with the real thing, see our honest comparison of vegan and real leather.
What we look for
On our rubric, a brand earns 10 points for naming its alternative materials together with the mill or converter that makes them. The name is the evidence. "Piñatex by Ananas Anam" or "Sugarlite, Braskem's bio-based EVA" can be checked. "Future Leather" cannot. Native Shoes earns those points for naming Braskem, and ROMBAUT does not, because "Beyond Leather" is its own name for a material it does not attribute.
A five-point check before you buy
- What percentage of the material is bio-based, and what is the rest?
- Is the coating PU, bio-based PU, or something else? Avoid PVC.
- Who makes it? A named company, not a trademark on a swing tag.
- What is the backing textile?
- For shoes: what are the lining and insole, and is the glue animal-free?
If you are shopping for a bag, our guide to the best vegan leather handbags in the UK applies all five.