About the Microfiber Material

What is microfiber leather?

The microfiber leather (or micro fiber leather or microfibre leather) is the abbreviation of microfiber PU (polyurethane) synthetic (faux) leather. Microfiber leather fabric is one type of synthetic leather, this material is microfiber non-woven fabric coating with a layer of high performance PU (polyurethane) resins.

The advantages of microfiber leather

• Real leather feel
• Excellent hydrolysis resistance, aging resistance
• Outstanding abrasion resistance, high tear strength, tensile strength and flexing endurance etc
• Very good uniformity, high dimensional stability, easy cutting and sewing
• Anti-bacteria, anti-odour
• Excellent chemical properties
• Lightness
• Breathability, water repellency
• Eco-friendly
• Washable
• Injectable

How to Identify the quality of microfiber leather

1. Check the surface grains. The texture of high quality microfiber is more clear and the surface layer feels really like genuine leather. However, the poor quality microfiber leather texture is rough and with strong sense of plastics.

2. Handfeeling. High quality microfiber has a good feel and the elasticity, comfort are also very high.

3. Check the crease. Folding the different microfiber leathers, and then check and compare the the crease, also check if the crease can disappear soon or not when the recovery. The smaller crease, the faster disappearance, means the better performance of surface PU attached microfiber base. This is an important indicator for high quality microfiber.

4. Check the scratches. Scrape the surface of the microfiber with a hard object to see if it will leave scratches. The surface of the high quality microfiber is with outstanding scratch resistant.

5. Hydrolysis resistance. High quality microfiber is very resistant to hydrolysis. Of course, this is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but must ask clearly when the procurement.

6. Base fabric. Base fabric is a key component for microfiber leather and it is related to the overall performance of microfiber. A good base fabric means the performance of microfiber is more stable.

Microfiber leather or real leather?

1. Microfibrer leather is high-class synthetic leather which perfectly replicates features of real leather such as the handfeeling, breathability and moisture absorption etc.

2. The performance of microfiber including chemical and abrasion resistance, anti-crease, aging resistance etc are better than genuine leather.

3. Because the real leather is animal skin, so it has a strange smell. If the formaldehyde and heavy metals exceed the standards in the production process, usually the real leather would has a pungent odour. However, the microfiber is anti-odour.

4. Based on the quality distribution on natural hide, the amount of usable leather is about 60 to 80% only. However, the microfiber is not limited by this, it is produced in roll form, also the quality of microfiber is very stable.

Microfiber leather or PU leather?

1. The price difference. The general price range of ordinary PU in the market is lower than microfiber leather.

2. The performance of the surface layer is different. Although the surface layers of both microfiber and the ordinary PU are polyurethane resins, but the ordinary PU that has been popular for many years, so ordinary PU has much more colors and styles than the microfiber leather. On the other hand, generally speaking, the polyurethane resin of microfiber leather has stronger abrasion resistance, acid and alkali resistance, hydrolysis resistance than the ordinary PU, also the color fastness and texture are better than ordinary PU.

3. The base material is different. Ordinary PU is with knitted fabric or woven fabric or non-woven fabric as the base fabric, then coated with polyurethane resin. The microfiber leather is with a three-dimensional structure of microfiber nonwoven fabric as the base fabric, then coated with high-performance polyurethane resin.

4. Different performance. Microfiber leather is much better than ordinary PU in terms of abrasion resistance, moisture absorption, comfort and other performance indicators etc.

5. Market prospects. The competition of ordinary PU market is very fierce because of the excess capacity and low technical threshold. On the other hand, because of the high technical threshold and the limited capacity and high performance, the microfiber leather is increasingly recognized by consumers, so there is a large market for growth.