Vinyl Vs. Leather

Vinyl vs. leather. How do you choose? It’s a question becoming more and more common as the quality and feel of vinyl are increasingly becoming more leather-like, but at a much lower cost than real leather.

In the vinyl vs. leather competition, the most attractive properties of leather cannot be replicated by vinyl. Some of these properties include:

  • breathability
  • tensile strength to withstand tears and punctures
  • excellent heat barrier and heat insulator, making it comfortable in both hot and cold climates
  • resistance to abrasion in both dry and wet environments

While vinyl does not have any of these characteristics, it does have many other properties that make it a very attractive option when economic performance is a must:

  • lower price point than leather and can be made to look and feel similar
  • highly cleanable
  • hundreds of colors, patterns, and textures
  • not as strongly affected by environmental factors such as temperature change, UV rays, and chemical pollutants as leather

When weighing your options of vinyl vs. leather, it will likely come down to cost, as well as the getting the look you want. Both leather and vinyl have great advantages and disadvantages, so you will need to decide which features are most important for your application.