Thanks to Shahrukh Zaidi, Senior Design Consultant – Leather Apparel and Accessories, based in Chennai, India.

1) The leather industry generates annual revenues of US$53 billion. Surprisingly that’s higher than the revenues of coffee, tea, rice, rubber, cotton, and sugar.

2) Top-grain leather is not the highest quality of leather. Customers often confuse top-grain leather with being the most genuine and highest quality leather. In fact, full-grain is considered the highest quality leather

3) Leather changes its texture based on environment. In a humid environment, leather becomes softer as it soaks up the moisture that is in the air, so therefore, a dry environment makes the leather much tougher. It is always a good idea to keep your leather items in suitable environmental conditions.

4) The average person owns 4 to 5 items made from leather. The average person owns minimum four to five items of leather. This could be shoes, bags, belts, wallets, watch straps and jackets.

5) Cow hide in the most popular choice for leather all over the world. Out of all the animal skins available, cow hide is the most widely used of all. This is thought to be since cow meat is most eaten and leather being a by-product of meat industry has been recycled since time immemorial.

6) Leather was once used as wallpaper. Back in the 17th century, it was a style statement to have your house wallpapered with leather in places such as Florence and Venice in Italy.

7) The leather industry is one of the oldest manufacturing industries in the world. Leather making is an ancient art that has been practiced for more than 7,000 years. The craft of making leather dates back as far as 5000 B.C., when leather was used for sandals, clothes, gloves, buckets, bottles, shrouds for burying the dead and for defense equipment.