Are you an animal lover? Do you volunteer at the local shelter, wishing you could take all of the animals home with you? Do you believe meat is murder?

If any of the above apply to you, you want to do everything you can to avoid unnecessary animal harm. And that’s a great thing.

In today’s world of milk alternatives, meatless meat, and cruelty-free beauty products, it’s easy to avoid animal products altogether.

And leather is no exception.

You don’t have to sacrifice texture and look to be cruelty-free. Here’s the best fake leather.

The Leather Industry

The leather industry is a tough one on not only the animals slaughtered but on the environment as a whole.

Cows are bred, raised, and slaughtered just to use their skin for fashion accessories and clothing. This industry takes the lives of hundreds of millions of animals, including cows, calves, pigs, sheep, and lambs.

This is not for food for consumption, just for material and fabric.

Even if you’re not vegan or vegetarian, the thought of killing animals for their skin can be unsettling, to say the least.

Environmental Impact

If you’ve done some research into the vegan lifestyle, you’ve probably seen a lot of information surrounding how unsustainable the cattle industry is.

Cows take a lot of resources to raise and feed, including food, water, and land. They essentially ruin the ecosystems around them, damaging the land and water supplies in the area.

They also release tons of methane gas into the atmosphere, contributing to pollution and greenhouse gases. Animal farming is also responsible for the majority of ammonia emissions, causing acid rain.

With all of this impact, it only makes sense to find an animal-free alternative. That’s where we turn to vegan leather for a safer solution.

The Problem with Other Fake Leather

There are many cheap plastic leather alternatives out there. Most of us know about them. And though they’re accessible and cheap, they can have a negative environmental impact as well.

Fake leathers like PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and PU (polyurethane) leather are known to release toxins into the air. They do this while also lasting a lifetime in landfills, and this becomes even worse if these fabrics are burned.

Even though it doesn’t cause immediate harm to animals, plastic leather can still have a lasting impact on the environment.

If only there was a healthier, plant-based fake leather that we could trust...

Mushroom Leather

Mushroom leather may just be the answer to your fake leather wishes.

But what exactly is mushroom leather?

How it Works

Okay, so mushroom leather isn’t made the way you may think. If you’re thinking mushroom leather consists of smooshing together a bunch of portabellas, we’re sorry to burst your bubble.

It’s actually made from something called mycelium. Mycelium is a network of fibers that connects living plants to each other beneath the soil, composting organic matter and delivering nutrition to plants.

It’s also the sort of “root system” from which mushrooms grow.

Growing the Mycelium

How do we grow this magnificent fiber in a lab?

Pretty easily.

All it takes is a bed of sawdust, some organic matter for it to feed on, and a little water. Soon you have a fibrous web of mycelium that’s ready to become leather.

The mycelium is harvested and meshed together to create a hyper-realistic leather texture.