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The two-second smell test
The first thing people mention in our showroom isn't the bag. It's the smell. Dimitri shows how your nose tells real leather from plastic.
Try the smell testA comment on one of our videos
Vegan, chrome-tanned, vegetable-tanned. Dimitri walks through all three, and why only one of them gets better with age.
See the differenceTwo years apart
Dimitri's own Belfast, carried every day for two years, next to a new one. This is what vegetable-tanned leather does with use.
Shop the Belfast Terra$475.00Ships worldwide · Free shipping over $220 USD · 30 days to decide
Walk into our showroom and the first thing people mention isn't a bag. It's the smell. Before they've picked anything up, before they've looked at a price, someone says it.
Dimitri doesn't notice it anymore. He's been around it too long.
“The smell I grew up with in Florence.”
Dimitri · Founder
It's also the fastest way to tell whether leather is any good. Pick the bag up and breathe in.
If it smells of chemicals, or of nothing at all, you're smelling plastic: either a synthetic coating sprayed over the leather, or no leather in it at all. If it smells warm and earthy, you're smelling the hide.
Try it on the next bag you pick up
Tap an answer to see what your nose is telling you.
Your nose says: real leather
That's the hide.
Tannins from tree bark, and nothing sprayed over the top, so what you're smelling is the leather itself. It's the smell people mention in our showroom before they've looked properly at a bag.
Your nose says: a coating, or plastic
That's the finish talking.
A chemical smell usually means a synthetic coating sitting on top of the leather, or no leather at all: plastic made to look like it.
Your nose says: look closer
No smell is a clue too.
Dimitri's rule: if it smells of chemicals, or of nothing, you're smelling plastic. Hide that hasn't been sealed over has a smell you can't miss.
Customers notice it too
“Absolutely awesome leather duffle bag. The smell of leather when opening this delivery was incredible!”
“Haven’t used it yet - it was a gift for my son. He loves it! The leather smell is amazing.”
“Fantastic- it looks (and smells) amazing.”
The bag in those reviews
A supple full-grain weekender for weekends and longer trips. Sized for three days away, with handles and a removable trolley strap.
Shop the BeltramiShips worldwide · Free shipping over $220 USD · 30 days to decide
Part two · A comment we had to answer
Someone left this comment under one of our videos. It's an easy mix-up. Vegan and vegetable sound alike, and plenty of shops use both words loosely.
So Dimitri walked through all of them: what vegan leather is, what chrome-tanned leather is, and why ours is called vegetable-tanned.
Three materials get sold as leather, or next to it. Here's what each one actually is.
No leather in it. Usually plastic (PU or PVC) made to look like leather.
Can't wear in. No patina, no darkening, no softening. When the surface wears, it cracks and peels.
The common one. Real leather, tanned quickly with chromium salts. It's how about 90% of the world's leather is made.
Usually finished with a synthetic coating sprayed on top, which is what you smell.
Real leather, tanned slowly with natural tannins from tree bark.
Dyed by hand, so the colour soaks into the hide. No coating.
Wears in. Forms a patina, darkens and softens.
Tanning is what turns a raw hide into leather that won't rot. Vegetable tanning does it with tannins from plants, mostly tree bark, rather than with chromium. It takes weeks instead of hours, which is why so little leather is still made this way.
There's no plastic layer on top to crack or peel. The colour goes through the hide rather than sitting on it, so a scuff shows more leather, not a different material underneath. And with use, it changes in the right direction.
The briefcase
A 16-inch laptop briefcase with one open compartment instead of divided sections, so it takes what the morning actually needs. Laptop and lunch.
Shop the TokyoShips worldwide · Free shipping over $220 USD · 30 days to decide
Paolo · Our tannery, Tuscany
No spray booth, no plastic topcoat. Paolo works the colour in until it soaks right through the hide. He asked not to be filmed, so you only get his hands.
Same tanneries, same makers, nineteen years.
The work tote
A structured work tote with the function of a briefcase. Same Terra leather, same hand-dyeing, carried on the shoulder.
Shop the FlorenceShips worldwide · Free shipping over $220 USD · 30 days to decide
Over time
Vegetable-tanned leather is made to be used. Every trip and every hand on the handles adds to the patina. Plastic can't do any of that.
Two years apart
Same bag. Same leather. Two years between them.
Dimitri puts his own Belfast, carried every day for two years, next to a new one straight out of the box. Same Terra leather, same makers. The difference is only use.
What you're looking at
Patina develops on vegetable-tanned leather with use. On a coated or plastic bag, the surface can only scuff, crack and peel. On ours, the hide itself improves.
The colour gets richer with wear, and small scuffs blend back in.
The leather relaxes at the folds and settles into the shape of what you carry.
Years of handling polish the surface to a soft glow. No two bags end up the same.
The bag in the video
The leather backpack from the video, in Terra. Dimitri's has two years of carrying on it. Yours starts where the new one does.
Shop the BelfastShips worldwide · Free shipping over $220 USD · 30 days to decide
Only about 10% of the world's leather is made this way. Every bag we make is one of them.
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