Buy Kangaroo Leather

Kangaroo leather is also popular in the manufacture of motorbike leathers and is used for many other applications such as car upholstery, military, football, and soccer boots, and fashion accessories.[6][7]

buy kangaroo leather

The collagen fibre bundles in cattle hide are arranged in a complex weaving pattern. The fibres are often at angles as much as 90 degrees to the skin surface. Cattle hide also contains sweat glands, erector pili muscles and a distinct gradation in elastin levels, concentrated in the upper part of the skin. Kangaroo hide on the other hand has been shown to have a highly uniform orientation of fibre bundles in parallel with the skin surface. It does not contain sweat glands or erector pili muscles, and elastin is evenly distributed throughout the skin thickness.[11] This structural uniformity explains both the greater tensile strength of the whole leather and the greater retention of strength in splits. Bovine skin is much more complex in cross-section; in whole section it has many more weak points from which tears can start when placed under tension. In addition, when split the collagen fibres running at significant angles to the skin surface will be cut, becoming weak points.

The Australian kangaroo industry produces a range of meat and leather products from animals harvested from the wild under strict government-controlled management plans intended to ensure that the harvest is sustainable and humane.[12]A wide cross section of Australian ecologists support the kangaroo industry as being both sustainable and environmentally wise.[13] Many argue that kangaroos, native to Australia, are a more environmentally friendly livestock option than introduced sheep and cattle.[14] The two most important facets of kangaroos' better ecological fit than European agricultural animals relate to their adaptation to Australia's aridity.

The kangaroo's paws are softer and do not compact the ground as hoofed cattle and sheep do. Instead, its hopping leaves very small bowl-shaped depressions in the surface of even dry clay soil, which let native grass seeds carried on the wind settle into them. The bowl shape concentrates any moisture that may fall into it into a wet point that the grass seed can use to germinate. Thus, kangaroos deplete the water table more slowly than cattle or sheep, and would even be viable in the absence of any bore water. The ecological arguments for kangaroos replacing sheep and cattle as arid land livestock are compelling, though they must be set against objections of kangaroos' lack of domestication and breeding rate.[citation needed]Kangaroos are eaten in most states.[citation needed]

Kangaroo leather is the most common type of leather used in manufactoring soccer cleats. Its uniform fiber makeup is key to its popularity in the soccer world. The microscopic makeup of the leather gives it excellent properties that are practical for playing on the field and striking the ball.

Even at a glance, cowhide and kangaroo leather have some visible differences. Going back to what was said before, kangaroo skin lacks sweat pores. The absence of these pores gives the hide more surface area filled with skin fibers. The densely packed fibers provide kangaroo leather with a superior structural makeup compared to cowhide. To the untrained eye, the kangaroo will resemble shell cordovan leather, another tough leather that is considered to be one of the best in the industry.

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar winds down, 7,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., a quiet, bipartisan effort involving the beautiful game stirs on Capitol Hill. It's not over soccer, at least not directly. It's about kangaroos.

If enacted, the Kangaroo Protection Act of 2021, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, would prohibit and criminalize the import, transport, and sale of all kangaroo products in the United States for commercial purposes.

Kangaroo leather has roots in sports to at least the mid-1800s in the manufacturing of croquet equipment. Today, kangaroo hides are important to the global soccer footwear industry, marketed as "k-leather" cleats. It's unclear what percentage of soccer cleats are made with kangaroo leather, but the online market Soccer.com currently sells more than 70 models of firm-ground cleats -- out of more than 600 total -- containing the hide. Manufacturers include Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Puma and Mizuno, among others.

Soccer's most expensive annual releases are often manufactured with k-leather, which is lighter, more malleable and more durable than cowhide. Among this year's k-leather releases are Nike's Tiempo 9 Elite, Adidas' Predator Edge 94+ and Predator Pulse UEFA Champions League models, Puma's KING Platinum 21 Rallye and Mizuno's Morelia Neo III, which all retail from $220 up to $350.

"If it's better for the environment and products can be made with [materials] to not make the shift so drastic, then it's a positive," Turner told ESPN, noting that he has never found synthetic boots big enough for his size-15 feet, so he still wears kangaroo.

If kangaroo products were banned in the United States, manufacturers and players would have to adapt -- or skirt the law, as has widely happened in California since it banned the import or sale of kangaroo products, which includes their meat (often used in pet food), in 2016. Animal rights groups say the ban has largely been unenforced.

As recently as April 2021, the global commercial kangaroo product industry -- both the animals' hides and meat -- was worth roughly $200 million annually to Australia, and the U.S. was its second-largest market in the world at $80 million. The vast majority of k-leather hides go toward the manufacture of high-end soccer cleats.

In 1993, when Australia-raised Craig Johnston, the longtime Liverpool midfielder, designed one of soccer's most popular boots, the aforementioned Adidas Predator, the materials were synthetic. But by the late 1990s -- and certainly by the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan -- Predators were made with kangaroo leather.

Unlike bovine hide, kangaroo leather fibers run cross-hatch, making it more malleable than conventional leathers, King says. Kangaroos also don't have sweat glands, so the maintenance and treatment of their hides is minimal compared to other leathers.

King added that the culling of kangaroos Down Under is important for the environment. Even after the wildfires of 2019-20, the Commonwealth Government estimated in October there are 42.7 million kangaroos in Australia to 26 million Australians. The animals' overpopulation is devastating an ecosystem already affected by climate change, the industry says.

It wasn't always open season on kangaroos; the red, western grey, and eastern grey kangaroos all spent time on the endangered species list in the '80s and '90s. In the early 1980s when levels were plummeting, the population was around 20 million, King says. Subsequent conservation and repopulation efforts were wildly successful; they hit "over 60 million" by 2000. A year later, due to starvation, thirst, and hunger, he says that population was halved.

While the Australian government has sanctioned commercial harvests of kangaroos since 1999, demand has outpaced supply, allowing a rise in virtually unpoliced amateur hunters who often hunt at night by blinding the animals with light flashes and shooting them from a distance.

"The share of kangaroo leather in our product material mix plays a minor role and is significantly below one percent because we've been able to substitute kangaroo leather with other innovative materials," the Adidas statement says. "We source the leather exclusively from suppliers that are monitored and certified by the Australian government, ensuring both animal welfare and the conservation of species."

World football isn't the only large market affected by the k-leather-free movement. In late 2019, fashion company Versace went kangaroo leather-free, and the Prada Group followed in mid-August 2020. Chanel, H&M, Diane von Furstenberg, Victoria Beckham, Salvatore Ferragamo and Paul Smith have all stopped using it as well.

One of earliest and highest-profile reversals -- in soccer or fashion -- was Italian sportswear giant Diadora. In mid-2019, Diadora launched an ad campaign to promote its revival of the beloved 1984 Brasil boot, hand-crafted with kangaroo leather, rippling through the soccer world and delighting purists and sneakerheads alike.

"Diadora ceased to develop any kangaroo leather shoes -- for the soccer and tennis categories, the only areas that still used this material -- at the end of October 2019," says Bryan Poerner, Diadora's president and CEO of the U.S. division. "The last Diadora collection to include kangaroo leather styles was spring/summer 2020. Any on the market today should be considered remnants or previous collections."

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which supports the U.S. ban, cited research showing that k-leather's environmental impact is nearly twice as large as that of synthetic leather and three times bigger than that of plant-based leather. Leather industry groups counter that many "plant-based" products end up containing plastic.

Rep. Fitzpatrick, the bill's co-sponsor, says "a lot of synthetic leathers are generated from recycled ocean plastics: That's a win-win: Cleaning up our oceans and producing high-performing soccer cleats, [without] animal abuse or animal rights issues to contend with. I hope that's where all these companies head; we need to get to truly environmentally responsible materials as quickly as possible."

Kangaroo leather is stronger and more flexible than cowhide leather, which means the upper on your boots will generally be thinner (like 1mm thick compared to the standard 2mm on high end boots). Despite its thinness, kangaroo leather is abrasion resistant and very flexible. It creases quickly due to a tight grain pattern and will darken, patina, and age faster than cowhide. However, you may enjoy the faster patina process. 041b061a72