What is Faux Suede?
Faux suede is a polyester microfiber material that’s woven together to create a material that’s easy to clean and manage compared to genuine suede leather.
Yes, it maybe animal friendly. But it brings issues for the environment that far outweigh anything else, as it’s actually plastic.
It’s super fine fibre of plastic that’s woven together to create a material that can be used in many sectors. Including car detailers microfibre cleaning cloths, furniture and many more areas.
But being made from plastics this has a huge impact on our environment and wildlife as we know it.
It may be classed as an eco-friendly product but it’s far from that, being plastic.
Cleaning and care of faux suede is the same as microfibre suede. Some can be cleaned with water and others with solvent based chemicals, but some suggest just dry vacuum to clean, but this won’t resolve staining and dirt build up from sweat and body oils and odours.
Other issues you get with faux / microfibre suede is with them being made from polyesters. They are a man-made material, it is slightly toxic, but more importantly it can cause severe skin rashes where this can outgas.
The trademark for this type of material is Ultrasuede, this was invented by Dr Miyoshi Okamoto in 1970, he was a scientist working for Toray Industries. It’s sold in Japan by the name of Ecsaine, then this is described as a faux suede material that closely represents the real suede.
Cleaning of faux suedes is with normal fabric cleaning solutions or solvent-based chemicals, some items you must be careful of as they must not have water or chemicals used at all on them as this can cause damage.
Always brush the fibres back up again after cleaning to produce that soft velvet feel.
But if you’re looking for a luxury touch there is nothing better than genuine suede leather.