What Is poromerics?
Poromerics Is a fake leather that began in the 1960’s DuPont gave it the name of Corfam, it’s a derivative of the terms porous and polymeric.
DuPont launched this material in 1963 at the Chicago shoe show, then in 1964 it was DuPonts main centre item at the New York world trade fayre. DuPont spent millions promoting this product to the market and shoe industry, then in 1971 off loaded the brand to a company in Poland.
The environmental impact on PVC derived products is immense. It’s not just the impact it has to the environment but to animals and humans as well, causing a great deal of problems, as mots PVC derived products rely on fossil fuels. PVC requires large amounts of energy to manufacture them and that’s why it relies so heavily on fossil fuels.
Most fake leathers rely upon plasticisers, which are known as phthalate these are added to plastics to make them flexible, without these items added the plastic will just crack under normal conditions, due to all these items along with the plastics this is where these products have major negative impacts on the world, some fake leathers are even classed as environmentally friendly due to what they are made from, but the process to make them has major impacts on our health and the environment.
In the early days of fake leathers being made, some lasted longer than others, but this was again down to the amounts phthalate used and the qualities of these, hence why some vinyl type products crack very easily and then some vinyl have a buttery soft flexible touch to them.
You fast forward to 2019 and there are many forms of fake leathers today, so many forms from vinyl’s to bonded, plastic coated splits, bycasts and much more making life difficult to the public trying to work out what is genuine leather and what is fake.
Quality has improved on all these fake leathers, but the process to make them still remains a problem for the environment.