What is Nappa Leather?
Nappa or as today they also call it Napa was first discovered in the Nappa Valley in California. The Sayer Tanning Company was established in 1869 and worked for almost half a century under the same management. The company was founded by A F Sawyer. Emanuel Manasse named the leather Nappa in 1875 and ever since it’s kept that same name.
Is It Nappa Skins or Today Naps Leather
Nappa is a leather made from cow, goat, calf and lamb. Today you can get a Nappa in many skin types. Today Napa leather is used in cars, furniture, handbags, clothing and shoes, it’s finished with a soft feel and touch. There are no real ways of telling if something is Nappa or Napa as it’s known today, other than its soft luxury feel.
Nappa is made from natural grain or more likely today corrected grain.
Nappa Leather is used for leather jackets, handbags, shoes and car interiors, BMW cars claim to have a lot of Nappa Leather in them in particular models and upgrades. Other brands that use the term Nappa are Bentley, Ford and Mitsubishi to name a few. But this does not mean this is, what Nappa is known for is a soft full grain leather with more breathability that corrected grain leather as most car seats are made from, which is an embossed leather, where the grain is embossed.
Also consider Nappa can mean different things in different languages.
Nappa Gear Stick
It’s a very luxurious leather and has an amazing soft touch to it. Nappa is often chrome tanned, the only downside to Nappa is it doesn’t wear as well as fully pigmented leathers, cars have a coating applied to them so they are a little more resilient to wear and staining taking place.
The leather industry has no genuine terms as to what Nappa actually is. People think it’s a type of product, in fact it isn’t, it’s just a term that started in 1875.
Due to its super soft luxury feel a great deal of leather jackets are made from this type of leather as well as handbags giving that very soft luxury touch to the items, with it being a full grain leather.
Nappa Jacket
The handbag industry uses a lot of Nappa or Napa Leather as it’s known today due to its luxury look and feel.
Nappa Miu Miu Leather Handbag
The way this leather is finished it has a very different feel and touch than standard pigmented leather.
This type of leather finish originally was made from full grain leather and used in the fashion industry for items like gloves and jackets, but today the term has been coined by so many, even corrected grain leather is called a Nappa, which isn’t possible as corrected grain isn’t full grain leather and is a contradiction and deceives the general public who think they are getting a full grain leather that’s soft and luxurious.
This leather finish is known for its soft touch, silk like finish, a touch like aniline leather has, so when you see companies using the term this term on alligator skins, its where the public become mislead and get confused as to what they are buying.