Growing up in a family with a leather tannery, Volkan, known as Tanner Leatherstein, was exposed to the intricacies of leather manufacturing from a young age. Winning a green card lottery allowed him to migrate to the US, where he pursued further education at the University of Chicago. After a brief stint as a consultant, he realized his true passion lay in leather.
You said that you’d like to challenge the luxury leather industry. What initially drove you to question the standards and the marketing practices of these high-end brands? My initial hunch, personal curiosity, I have been in leather my entire life.
So I know the industry. I know the prices in leather bag making. And a few years ago, I kind of developed this curiosity towards why those labels were so expensive when it comes to some specific brand of luxury goods. And I wanted to buy and inspect the quality inside out. People are obviously paying a lot of money for these things. I wanted to see what was special about it, like what was included in the price and to my surprise, the quality was not justifying the price you paid. There was a lot more in the package. But the problem that I realized with many people was they really didn’t understand that part, at least a good portion of the people. They were thinking, „Oh, it’s expensive. It’s from a luxury brand and it’s leather. So it might be due to leather, due to its quality.” That’s why it’s expensive. And when we try to explain things, it’s actually about the status and the branding and advertising of the brand that develops into that logo and then loads it onto a leather bag.
Then some people are like, well, I don’t want to pay that. You know, I don’t need that logo premium. I just want a good leather bag so my goal become at that point to see what the premium is in every leather goods price tag and show it to people and make they they can make their own decision if they want to pay a premium for the brand or they just want a good bag for a fair price so now that we’re talking about brands let’s just keep it a bit in this direction in this market dominated by branding what misconception do you think consumers have about quality and the craftsmanship and what do you hope to change through your work with this well the biggest misconception is when it comes to leather goods and i’m specifically speaking in my own field here um people assume they don’t know or understand leather or good leather so they solely rely on the price, the signaling, the quality, and the brand, the marketing coming from the brand. And obviously, no brand says bad things about their own stuff.
Everything is great when it comes to marketing. And if it’s super expensive, automatically people make that assumption, oh, it must be the highest quality. Unfortunately, that is not the case in the leather industry. Because brands know that people have this lack of knowledge about leather they kind of abuse it in a lot of cases it’s not for every brand of course but it’s very common and my goal is to be a kind of like insider explaining people what things are by doing one bag review at a time to eliminate this abuse practice from the brands you know if you’re going to charge thousands of dollars for a bag as a brand, then you better give people something special, something unique, something really high quality so they get what they paid for. So that’s what I wanted to level the playing field in favor of consumers in this market.
Do you see your work as a call for reform within the fashion industry?
Yes, it is in a sense, because I think around the 50s, 40s, 50s with Chanel’s and Saint Laurent’s, the leadership of those brands, the designers wanted to kind of democratize luxury in their own words. They said we could mass produce luxury or at least the sense of luxury and provide it to people with the aspiration that they’re going after. And it works for a good while. That’s why we have these luxury houses become the, you know, giants they are today. But now I think it’s kind of oversaturated, like luxury has become just banal, you know, it’s just normal. Everything becomes luxury. And that just doesn’t sit right in the definition of luxury. Luxury has to be special, exclusive, unique, right? It cannot be mass produced. It cannot be factory production line style. But that’s what they did. And it worked great for profits and investors. But today, that’s, you know, the oversaturated market, I think, has to turn and redefine what luxury is, what people are buying for those high price tags. And maybe my work is one of the ways that’s kind of manifesting itself, that reform, that change, that needs in the market, is coming through some of my videos.
Regarding this previous question, what changes do you hope or would you like these brands to adopt?
Well, first of all, they should be a lot more strict with their quality standards, their material selections. It shouldn’t be all about talk. It shouldn’t be all about just charging high price tags. For the duty towards their consumers, you know, they’re paying a premium. They need to get premium materials. On the other hand, the second side of the same coin, they need to be a lot more responsible, accountable for their practice because they’re so powerful. Their word goes a long way in the supply chain. And they, in the name of profit, squeeze every penny out of everybody in the production line. This goes down to the weakest point, you know, the workers being the ones, the victims of this process. And we’ve seen it in very recent cases of Dior and stuff like that. you know social responsibility shouldn’t stay in the websites and marketing talk it should manifest itself in their practical operations because people pay that premium they have the room to pay for these expenses and better practices of production and manufacturing hopefully this shifts these two shifts on the consumer and for quality and the responsibility on the production end are the two changes I would like to see towards in the luxury world today.
As interest in this sustainable fabrics to leather alternative, like a Pinatax from Pineapple, Maskin from Mushrooms, Vegea, Deserto and so on, have emerged our system today, how do you perceive the role of these alternatives in the luxury market and what potential do you see for them in challenging the traditional leather in terms of maybe quality sustainability or consumer acceptance?
So there is a big deception going on, kind of abusing the righteous mindset of vegan people. A good portion of the market relabeled what used to be called pu or vinyl or fake leather.
Today, it’s sold as vegan leather. So that’s a scam, first of all. Those plastics relabeled as vegan leather is a scam. So you’ve got to be careful and read through the label a little better to make sure it’s not PU because I know the true vegan mindset doesn’t want a petroleum derivative as a leather alternative, knowing that it’s going to fall apart in a year and it’s going to stay on earth forever. But there are honest efforts like the natural fibers trying to be an alternative for leather, like the pineapples, mushrooms, you name it, like the cactus. There are potentials, of course, and I think it’s a great, honest effort to provide an option for people who don’t want to use animal products.
We can’t assume everybody’s okay using leather. Although leather is a byproduct of the meat industry, if nobody uses it, it’s going to go to trash. It’s a wasted resource. And now by using leather, we’re eliminating the need for plastic and other fabrics because it’s a durable material. It can be turned into a variety of things, you know, shoes, upholstery, garments, wallets, you name it. So leather has a huge role in our society, having been that way for thousands of years, probably one of the first practices of upcycled material, you know, because of our meat consumption. Now, that doesn’t satisfy some people who don’t want to use animal products. And I think somebody needs to figure out alternatives for them to use that are not plastic, that are, you know, that are truly the natural fiber, natural origin alternative for people who can accept that. And again, these, I’m talking to some of these people who are trying to develop these materials, and they never see themselves as a competition or a replacement for leather. It’s a complementary product for people who don’t want to use leather. Leather is hard to compete with. How do you compete with a natural resource? We cannot make a substitute for wood for a lot of and plastic is great we use it in many cases but you can’t replace wood with plastics same case for leather you know leather has its own place and it will always have its own place but the complementary vegan alternatives definitely needed and i really like people trying to come up with natural solutions for it.
But of course, we need to practice. What I definitely do not expect is that these take a good market from leather. It’s not going to be. But I hope to see them take a great market from PU leather, you know, the plastic leather alternatives being replaced with these naturally sourced leather alternatives. I don’t think they will ever take significant enough from the real leather market because, again, the vegan mindset, the meat, vegan people are a very small portion of the society still. As long as it’s that way, I don’t think leather is going anywhere soon because it’s going to keep being produced. And there are a lot of people using animal products and it’s the responsible choice for them to choose leather whenever they need something that can be made with leather.
So you’ve pointed out flaws in major brands’ products before. Now, do you decide what’s a reasonable flaw versus a deal-breaker for the consumers when you decide to rip off the products that you do for social media?
Basically, when i’m randomly picking products, I mostly listen to my audience’s requests, like which brand, which bag I want to review. And whenever I’m evaluating them on the videos, I always compare my findings to the price I paid and the advertising material, you know, what the brand says about it, about the product and the materials. I’m trying to see if it’s accurate. I’m trying to see if the price I paid sets an expectation like every purchase, right? Am I really getting that expectation met when I’m looking really deep through this craft, you know, inside out? And in most cases, it’s very obvious. Like if I paid a really high price tag and the materials are below mediocre, you know, this is an easy decision. This is not what it’s supposed to be because I paid the premium price. I’m expecting a premium material and workmanship. But if it’s not the case, then it makes a bad review. But on the other hand, if I paid, you know, just an okay price, like very affordable item, and the brand chose mid-quality leathers, mid-quality hardware, it’s understandable because they did not charge me a premium, you know, it’s a budget item, made at its best potential quality well that’s acceptable right that because it my expectation is set by the price i paid so that’s my judging criteria and that’s how i decide on each review.
You come from a family with a tannery background. Do you ever feel conflicted about critiquing an industry that is part of your heritage?
No, not really, because it’s kind of hard, but I see two as separate jobs in my day. Half of my day is doing content as Leatherstein, fulfilling half of my mission, helping people understand leather. And anything about leather, it’s good, bad, about the practices of my industry, it’s completely within that mission. If it’s serving my mission of helping people understand that material. I’ll do that. And on the other end of my mission, which is to help them experience leather better, which is through my brand, through my product, then I’m going to try my best to bring the best leather, best leathers, best applications of leather for affordable prices. Because that’s what I’m about. I’m about good stuff for a fair price. I’m not into shiny brands as a consumer. I was never a luxury consumer. So that’s what I’m trying to do with my brands, produce good leather crafts and provide them with a lean business model at an affordable price tag to people so they can experience it. You know, it doesn’t have to be, at least today, good leather doesn’t have to be a luxury that, you know, only a few can reach. It’s not true anymore.
Do you sometimes feel that your followers that are following you for tearing down pieces would not buy your product from your brand just because they see the content that you do and maybe they have a conflict themselves?
I don’t know. I never think about it that way. Some people may not, may not like what they hear and may not choose my brand, which is fine. choose my brand which is fine but some people uh actually say in the comments that they learn from these um videos and they make better decisions and they appreciate it they trust my knowledge in leather and then it might mean they trust my products as well so i think it could go both ways and either way it’s fine um i think both are important for me to keep doing and i’ll be doing it. They definitely impact each other, but I will try to keep them as separate and as professional as possible.
What is one discovery you’ve made while tearing down a piece? Has anything really surprised you?
Basically, one Jacquemus bag was a very surprising discovery for me. It’s a very popular brand from France. Their products are not cheap, friends um their products are not cheap especially for a given new brand you know just 10 years old um 10 or 15 years old i’m not sure but it was made in italy this bag was made in italy i drew two products from that first one was pretty good i think made in spain it was okay and the second one was made in italy but it was really really bad in terms of quality the leather craftsmanship definitely definitely didn’t justify my um my price my my the price i paid and it kind of felt like pure hype around a brand that’s coming from france you know social media um just flaring up the the brand and people just buy it because of that but they’re not getting what their money supposed to be getting them that was a big surprise so I didn’t like what i found in the second review of jacquemus
Where do you feel is the most well done leather as a country, as a region?
Oh, like leather, so if you’re asking leather, it’s a different question. If you’re asking leather products, and again, like what products also will change the answer here but in general like the greatest leathers that I found that’s pretty much in the artisan range or fashion range are coming from Europe and the countries I can count as Italy probably on top Germany Spain and then French maybe these are the top tanneries top leather articles I can find that I love using too and I love seeing the luxury brands using. Then in terms of crafting quality, consistently love the quality I found from the products made in Spain. ] And for that reason, I moved to Spain. Right now I’m in Spain. Italy has really good production, but also has a very large range. There’s really high quality production in Italy. There’s mediocre and there’s really low quality production in Italy. So made in Italy definitely doesn’t tell me like it’s going to be 100% perfect. I’ve seen good, bad and ugly. So brands are mostly good, but kind of rare because of the I think costs associated. These are the countries that gave pretty good crafting quality to me recently. I’m hearing Romania is doing pretty good in Europe in terms of quality and price point for their production of leather goods. And in Asia, China is a big range. There’s great, great crafts coming from China, but also there’s really, really bad crafts coming from China.
As a member of the Business of Fashion 500, how has this platform shaped your mission to bring transparency to luxury leather? Do you see it influencing the industry standards, maybe?
Well, I don’t know if I’ve seen any impact after that. It’s fairly new, the inclusion of my name in the list. It was like last month. But that made me personally realize the importance of the videos I’m making, bringing some accountability and maybe change to the fashion leather world. I’m definitely happy about it and it kind of gave me an added sense of responsibility. I need to make sure whatever I’m doing is a lot more accurate, a lot more responsible when I’m doing my research and doing my comments, given how much people appreciate them and then take them for advice or guidance in their leather and fashion understanding. So I’m trying to be more careful and appreciate this kind of response I see for the content. But in terms of impact, I don’t know if I realized anything yet. We’ll see. I will do more of it in a much more responsible and accurate way and see if we can make a positive impact in the world of leather fashion.
Photos courtesy of Tanner.
Interviewed by Adela Cioruta.
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