Hacker News Reader

Comment by isitdopamine | Hacker News Reader

One of the things I love about leather is it’s extreme durability!

I’ve been wearing the same leather boots for 4 winters now, a leather jacket is steadily approaching the 10 years marks.

More generally: sustainability problems can be mitigated or solved by buying stuff that lasts, see for instance /r/BuyItForLife

Is mushroom leather as durable?

View on HN

I just wonder how something like canvas compares. If it lasts 1/2 as long but nothing had to be killed and skinned it's kind of hard to compare the two. But canvas comes from plants, which seems nice. Mushroom leather, if it did not compare directly to animal leather, could be used in decorative applications, while durable plant based or synthetic materials could be used when longevity is needed.

It's nice having durable products, and frustrating when things succumb to unnecessary failure. I think that given the externalities of producing it, though, it seems increasingly short-sighted to look at that metric in isolation.

What about durability per hectare of dead forest or kilo of CO2?

Though I'm quite fond of leather shoes, I'd gladly take a slightly less durable product that's many times less harmful to produce.

> less durable product that's many times less harmful to produce.

A big citation needed here… I am not sure boots made from locally-sourced leather are less sustainable than boots made from synthetic fibers and petroleum derivates some place in South-East Asia.

Citation needed for what? I don't think such a product exists yet.

I was talking about the calculus of how you appraise products.

> locally-sourced leather

Transportation costs are negligible compared to the direct and indirect impacts of raising cows

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/food-footprints?stackMo...

> A big citation needed here…

Oh the irony...

That link about beef explains what, exactly?

> the direct and indirect impacts of raising cows

Uhm, and this is relevant to discussion because…

I am sorry but I don’t really get it.

I have a biker leather jacket since 20 years ago. Still as good as new.

I find that, for leather sneakers and boots, the soles often wear out and the rest still looks new.

Makes me miss the old days of going to the cobbler to get new soles put on.

Some shoe brands still do this, such as Allen Edmonds:

https://www.allenedmonds.com/discover/our-story/recrafting.h...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com