What is Bicast Leather?
Bicast leather is pretty straightforward. It is leather that has been split, the bottom layer(the part without the top grain, which is the strong part) is taken and they coat it with a polyurethane coat that they then imprint to make look like the top grain of leather.
Too many people are starting to believe that this is what beauty looks like.
It is like the plastic surgery of the leather world. Take all of nature’s beauty, chop it off, and then cover over the underside with plastic and make it look how you want. Now, call me opinionated, but I think the true natural beauty of a person outshines any cosmetic surgery that could ever be done, and the true is same for leather. It is about more than outside appearance, it is about character and integrity. Bicast leather gets rid of this part of the leather.
So…Why?
Bicast Leather, much like Bonded Leather, was actually created with fairly noble intentions. It was created, originally for shoes, for the poorer classes who wanted real leather shoes, and then later furniture, but couldn’t afford them. Bicast leather is cheaper, since it is half polyurethane, so more people could afford them. This allowed them to have something that looked and felt like leather, and could impress visitors, without breaking their bank.
But…There Are Some Drawbacks
Like many “I want it now” mentality deals, bicast leather lets you buy your “leather couch” now for a cheaper price, but it hurts you in the long run. The bicast leather doesn’t have the same durability, so you will have to replace that couch sooner, which will cost you more in the end. This is the same mentality that causes major debt. People want what they want now, so they sacrifice in the long run. Another drawback is that this mentality and popularity of bicast leather has become so popular that many people now don’t realize that it is a cheap option that you can take if you absolutely have to, and they are thinking it is the real deal and that they are getting a steal on an expensive couch for a cheap price. Really they just bought a cheap couch. Many furniture retailers are catching on to this, and they aren’t making any efforts to tell you that there is a better product, and the prices for the imitation are just going to get higher and higher as people are willing to pay more for what they think is “the real deal”.
