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Comment by vundercind | Hacker News Reader

Leather’s near-magical. It’s so resilient it’s almost hard to believe it’s real.

It’ll be cool if someone even gets close to that with alternatives, especially at a similar price, but I’m not holding my breath.

I get the impression these alternatives are mostly a replacement for bonded “leather” so far, which is such a shit material that they ought to be able to surpass it without trouble.

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There are many natural products which have a similar magic. Cork, sheep wool, bees wax, &c.

And yes most alternative leathers are plastic with 10% of something in top so you can call it "apple" leather, "pine apple" leather, ... Or straight up petrol derivates

leather would be pretty darn perfect if leather shoes didn't need a break-in period.

I'm extremely weary of leather shoewear because I've suffered too many sores in my life, specially when I was a child. I'd like to have comfy shoes that last long but the break in period...

In basic training we were taught to wear in our new boots by bending the toe-half of the sole back and forth for hours, and when we went to bed, we positioned them in a folded up position under our bunk bed frames. When we went to use them the next day, they weren't too stiff. Still have those boots, some ~15 years later, for mowing the lawn now though.

My problem is usually at the back of the feet, at the heels, usually the external side

Thanks for the tips though

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