Last Updated on 4 years by Tam Le Van
We believe that you will put the quality first when shop a fashionable leather bag, stylish a pair of shoes or an elegant jacket. However, leather shops in Hoi An have the wide variety of quality ranging from ‘faking’ to premium grades. For this reason, tourists will feel confused about which piece is nice and which is not. The pricing also shoule be noted. You may pay several hundred dollars for a poor standard product at some stores for example.
In this articles, HOI AN LIFE gives you a package of useful tips to identify easily, save time, avoid scams, and of course, pick the highest-class leather goods in your ability at last.
Leather quality-leading factor to know a nice good
General scene of the real leather in Hoi An
Like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, Hoi An’s real leather has an abundance. Looking for beguine leather at reputable shops is totally a piece of cake due to they are reliable in the source of materials and accessories, especially only use 100% natural cow/buffalo leather from Vietnam (some with imported leather). Browse our article here to find out four best leather shops in Hoi An.
Dozens of salemans in Hoi An central market or stores around the Old town also buy qualitied products from their workshop. But deal in with more reasonable price than big shops. Rest of the market stalls offer us a wide range of sizes (mostly shoes) as well as acceptable richness of design. In addition to, the quality of their goods is relatively lower than dependable shops because of collaborating with low to medium trustworthy suppliers. For this reason, you will make more efforts to pick a nice good suiting your needs over there.
Popular types of artificial leather in Hoi An
Simili leather
As a member of synthetic leather family, Simili leather usually is created by a piece of facbric woven by polyeste fibers and covered by a layer of PVC plastic. On the next step, it is surface-treated and embossed to make it like the real leather. To turn into a glossy final look, workers dye the leather with different colours serving for diverse purposes of the guest.
Simili leather products have many advantages compared to natural friend such as hard to warped or cracked due to no moisture in, typically sold with a cheaper price and waterproof that flexibly used during rainy days.
Polyurethane leather (PU leather)
You may see this kind of high-class synthetic material within lots of leather shops in Hoi An. On a same basis with Semili leather, it also gets covered by a layer of Polyurethane plastic in order to become softer, more durable and easier to clean. In general, PU leather-created products provide us similar feeling to real leather. Besides, there are several nicknames people call it like soft leather, flexible leather, etc into the bargain.
In comparion to most authentic leather things, PU items are less costly and own the higher rate of durability. But do not hold up for as long as together with prone to tear after a few years because of their thinness.
Tips for knowing a real leather good in Hoi An
#1 Use your nose to smell
Smelling gets its first position on the nicest methods to identify your item made by real leather or not. At the moment, there is no reliable way to fake smelling of the genuine one which has a number of distintiveneses such as skin scent, organic, etc. By contrast, non-real leather itself brings us plasticky and chemical odor smell that easily gotten. Try this technical tip when want to buy prime bags, shoes or jackets at leather shops in Hoi An.
On the other hand, scorching it if allowed. While the artificial leather catches flame and smell similar to burning plastic, you will have smell of burnt organic compounds like barbecue or burnt hair when meet certain type of natural leather.
#2 Make it wet
This is our second method which possible shorten your searching process around leather shops in Hoi An. Because genuine leather is a type of moisture absorbing material, so making it wet helps you alot to pick the right leatherwork. Few minutes after dropping water on real-leather made goods, the water spreads and penetrate well into. For a non-real leather item, it will flow away.
#3 Naked-eye observation
Take note of natural ridges on the authentic leather if want to check by your naked eyes. Furthermore, you should observe closer to see in detail. There are couples of small pores and no cracks at all inside. With big differences, the vegan leather goods usually have a smooth and level surface due to coated by plastics in the factory.
#4 Press on leather surface
Using your thumb to press firmly on the outside of your expect-to-buy leatherwork is another helpful tip to make sure its quality. This action leaves the dent around your thumb and then it will be lost when move your hand. The main reason belongs to high rate of real leather elasticity. In fact, synthetic leather types can not be evident in the same manner.
Additionally, it’s possible to use your fingertips for checking too. Press them on the product, pull a line and pay attention to feel. You have a fast-moving travel on synthetic leather things in common. Differently, the natural leather gives you harder works as it produces the friction making your fingertips quite difficult to move on its surface. Along with other tips, Hoi An thinks that you are much more confident to buy something high-grade at leather shops in Hoi An. As well as, able to skip quickly low-quality goods and take that time to enjoy our beautiful city.
Look at details of the leather good you want
Rows of stitching
Overally, stiching itself plays very vital role when create a qualitied leatherwork. More particular, the surface get ratained in a longer period of time as well as extremely firmly thanks to carefull and skilled stitching technique. In expat points of view, it helps to increase value of entire leather product. Hand-sewn goods always have a better commerical price than machine-sewn one. For this reason, take your up-close look towards rows of stitching to ensure have couples of nice goods on hands.
Snaps and keys
The snap/key basically is another important detail what helps you to have a nice leather good. However, many buyers only contrate on its quality&design and usually ignore checking the snaps/keys which are right under direct effects from daily use. If buy an item installed by low-quality snaps/keys, you will need to replace them many times year-to-year.
Metal or plastic snaps/keys is primarily personal preference but metal one provides more sophisticated look and has a longer use time. It does not mean that plastic snaps/keys have no more advantages except their affordable price. Hoi An Life is able to mention some pros like a huge collection of colors and shapes, lighter weight, X-ray safe or will never rust. Leather shops in Hoi An use both of metal and plastic snaps/keys, accordingly there are more choices to select your beloved things.
Inner lining
Within Hoi An leather shops, you may see various types of inner lining used for voguish bags, shoes or jackets. While local makers often take advantage of leftover fabric from different sources, stores selling high-class pieces work with kind of fabric in better quality for lining.
Adding inner lining into leather items makes them become thicker and increase the weight significantly. Therefore in case of prime objects, the artisan requires the lining material what brings a sense of softness and lightness to users. Canvas (a plain-woven fabric) is the most used fabric in the company of its inner lining family. It get known for being durable, sturdy, and heavy duty. To identify this, estimate its weight and conduct the comparion with others in the shop. Canvas fabric will show a lighter number.
Straps
Fashionable handbags, laptop cases or backpacks all have straps. Upright, sturdy and durable straps open a window for nice goods to you when would like to purchase something around Hoi An leather shops. Normally, the satisfactory strap gets made up by filling materials that able to keep the form of objects stay stronger and more durable over time. By contrast, faking verson just maintains its original form in a short period.
See how the shop arranges its products
Not only focus on the quality and particular details, the arrangement of items within a store indicates us useful information. Taking note of how carefully, tidy and orderly the shop owner displays all manner of his/her leather pieces. If everything placed on appropriate positions according to value, aesthetic and categories, you come to a right shopping mecca inside the maze of Hoi An’s leather shop.
Add comment