The Art of Turning Fish into Leather | Hacker News Reader

The Art of Turning Fish into Leather

hakaimagazine.com

28 pointscolinprince9 comments

One thing this article doesn't mention is that there is currently a huge glut of cowhide leather: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-08-09/america-s...

The fish skin patterns looks unique, but I would rather not find anymore uses for animal products in clothing. I would prefer that humanity invest time in synthetic leathers, canvas, etc. If synthetic leather is not as "good" as the real thing, we should work on improving the technology. It is 2020 we need to move forward.

You'd rather we discard the hides instead of using them? Nobody raises animals just for leather - except maybe alligators, where the hide might be worth more than the meat.

There is plenty of place for both natural leather and synthetics.

The company has this to say about synthetic leather.

> Fish leather is more ecologically sound than vegan leather alternatives because it requires less energy than the creation of vegan leather, it does not include petroleum products, and it works with the circular economy using existing waste from food fisheries to create a durable finished good. Fish leather doesn’t need the extra (chemically induced) step of removing hair that mammal leather requires, either.

https://www.7leagues.com/leather

I’ve never seen fish leather before !

It looks like they’re still in the process of launching their shoe brand:

https://www.7leagues.com/#home-section

Unrelated to shoes, but while I usually don’t buy many products, I would totally buy a wallet made out of the leather as it looks so unique.

I've had a salmon skin wallet for the past 15 years. It's showing some signs of wear, but it's still remarkably intact for it's age. I used to go through a new cow leather wallet at least once every three years.

Excerpt:

"Tasha Nathanson wears the fish skin leather shoes she made as a proof of concept for the business she’s developing called 7 Leagues Leather. Part of her vision is to create a social-enterprise tannery that provides training and work for people who face barriers to employment."

Sounds like a great idea! Wishing her luck in this endeavor!

I like the idea but I also enjoy the smell of leather. I'm afraid that my car will have a new fish smell.

I have a salmon skin bracelet that is a few years old and it smells faintly of what I know as the smell of leather. It should be fine. Maybe the bigger issue is that fish and thus the skin pieces are quite small.

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