Leather terminology is designed to be confusing, because the confusing terms sell the worse material. “Genuine leather” sounds like a guarantee and is a grade near the bottom. Here is the whole vocabulary, in order, with what each word actually means.

The grades, in order

Full grain. The complete top layer of the hide, unsanded. Strongest, most expensive, patinas. Marks are visible because they are real.

Top grain. The top layer with the surface sanded and refinished. Even and consistent. Ages less.

Genuine leather. A lower split of the hide, below the grain, usually with an artificial grain embossed on. Real leather, weak fibres, cracks rather than creases.

Bonded leather. Leather scrap ground up and glued to a backing sheet. Peels, always. It is to leather what chipboard is to oak.

The two tannages

Vegetable tanned uses tree bark over four to eight weeks. Firm, darkens hard in sunlight, smells like leather is supposed to, holds a tooled or pressed impression beautifully. Chrome tanned uses chromium salts and takes about a day. Softer, more colour stable, more water resistant, and the reason most coloured fashion leather exists. Combination tanning does both and is common in good bag leather.

Hand tests that work

Look at the edge. A cut edge of full grain is uniform through its depth. A coated split shows a distinct skin over a fuzzy core.

Look at the pores at an angle. Irregular and varying across the panel means real grain. Perfectly repeating means embossed.

Press with a fingernail. Full grain marks faintly and recovers. Heavily finished leather does nothing, because you are pressing on a polymer layer.

Smell it. Not conclusive, but heavily coated leather smells of chemicals rather than of leather.

What about vegan leather

Most of it is polyurethane on a fabric backing, which is plastic, and it delaminates in two to five years. There are genuinely interesting plant based materials coming, and none of them yet match full grain for lifespan. We do not make any, and we are not going to tell you the plastic version is better for the planet than a hide that lasts thirty years.