What is vegan leather? Meaning, types and its limits
What is vegan leather? It is a marketing name for leather-like material that contains nothing of animal origin. That is the whole promise. The name does not say what the material is made from, how strong it is or how big its impact is. This note explains the meaning, the kinds of material behind the label and what to ask before you use it in a product or on a label. Examples of material makers come from their own pages, read on 22 Oct 2026, with no ranking.
What vegan leather is, and what it is not
Two assumptions come up often. The first is that vegan leather is always plant-derived. The second is that it always outlasts ordinary synthetic leather. Neither is guaranteed.
A PU or PVC coated fabric has no animal content, so it can be sold as vegan. It is still plastic-based. In the other direction, plant fibre bonded with an animal-derived adhesive cannot be called vegan. The only way to know is the full material list: base, coating, adhesive and dye.
Third-party vegan labels exist. A partner page of MoEa says its GrapeSkin material carries the PETA-Approved Vegan and Vegan Society labels. Such a label answers a question about animal content. It does not answer a question about strength or service life.
Three terms that get mixed up
- Vegetable-tanned leather (kulit nabati) is animal hide tanned with plant tannin. It is not vegan.
- “Mushroom skin” (kulit jamur) is mostly read as a human skin condition by Indonesian searchers. For the material, write mycelium leather or mushroom leather.
- Coconut “skin” (kulit kelapa) usually means coconut husk sold by the kilo, not a leather-like sheet.
More terms are on the alternative leather terms page.
The kinds of material behind the label
The table gives examples from what each maker publishes. It is not a ranking and not a full list.
| Kind of material | Example and what it states | What is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric with a PU or PVC coating. | Sold as synthetic leather in the local market. | Coating type, base fabric and test results are often unwritten. |
| Plant fibre with a polymer coating. | Ananas Anam sells Piñatex, made from pineapple leaf fibre. | Its main page lists no composition, thickness or test standard. |
| Bacterial cellulose. | Malai (India) says its material comes from coconut water, in sheets of 120 x 80 cm. | Thickness and test data are not stated. |
| Cactus-based. | Desserto lists its BIO+ line with a USDA label of 65% biobased. | No test method is named, and the percentage concerns carbon origin. |
| Plant protein and biopolymer. | Modern Meadow says Innovera holds more than 80% renewable carbon. | No performance specification is listed. |
| Coating from grape residue. | MoEa partner page: 55% grape material and 45% water-based PU, on recycled fabric. | The flex-test cycle count is not written. |
The percentages are not equivalent. Some count the coating mass, some the whole material, some the carbon. Do not read them as quality scores.
NFW writes that MIRUM is “plant-based, plastic-free”. That is a company claim, not a test result we read. Alternative materials can also stop being made. On 22 Oct 2026 the Bolt Threads page said the company is no longer operating. Check availability before you design a product around one material.
What to ask a vegan material supplier
One sentence saying “our material is vegan” is not enough to decide. Ask for five things in writing:
- A full material list, including coating, adhesive and dye.
- Total thickness and weight per square metre, with tolerance.
- Tensile, tear, flex and rub results, with the method and the sample thickness.
- A written statement that adhesive and dye are not animal-derived.
- Availability, lot size and lead time.
For a feel of what a data sheet holds, a US faux leather trader’s article (2017) quotes an upholstery reference: Wyzenbeek abrasion of 50,000 cycles (ASTM D4157) as a minimum. That is not the result of one product, and its units and method differ from tests used by bag or shoe factories. Use it to learn the shape of a sheet, not to compare figures.
Where the Kora coconut material fits
Kora is one of the producers discussed on this site. Kora is researching a sheet material from a coconut by-product. Kora has published no test data, no full material list and no product stage. So we do not put it in the table above and do not compare it with any other maker. What is listed and what is still empty is on the Kora material status page.
Using the word vegan on a label
The word vegan on a finished product has to be true for the whole product, not only for the starting material. See the safe claims guide and the article on writing material claims on a product label. To pick a material by product type, open choosing a material. The label claim check sheet turns each label word into a question for your supplier.
Sources and limits
Read on 22 Oct 2026: Malai, Desserto, Modern Meadow, Ananas Anam, MoEa GrapeSkin (a reseller partner page, not the Vegea site), NFW, Bolt Threads, and the Mitchell Faux Leathers article.
The limits: we read page summaries, not full data sheets. The Piñatex shop page would not open, so we use none of its composition figures. We found no bacterial cellulose leather maker in Indonesia that we could name, which does not prove there is none.
Ask us
Want to ask about the Kora coconut-derived sheet material? Send a question through the contact page with your product and the three properties that matter most. We reply within two business days and say plainly when the data do not exist.
Questions buyers ask
What is vegan leather made of?
There is no single raw material. It can be a PU or PVC coated fabric, plant fibre with a polymer coating, bacterial cellulose or something else. The word vegan only says no animal-derived content, so ask for the full material list: base, coating, adhesive and dye.
Is vegan leather the same as synthetic leather?
Not always, but they overlap a lot. A PU or PVC coated fabric has no animal content, so it can be sold as vegan. There are also vegan materials that are not classic synthetic leather, for example those built on plant fibre or bacterial cellulose.
Is vegetable-tanned leather vegan?
No. Vegetable-tanned leather is animal hide tanned with plant tannin, so it is still animal-derived. In that name the plant part describes the tanning, not the material. In Indonesian it is called kulit nabati, and it is often mixed up with vegan leather.
Does a vegan label mean the material is strong and durable?
No. The label answers a question about origin, not strength. For strength and durability ask for tensile, tear, flex and rub test results, with the method, the sample thickness and the date.