Recently the Da Bao team were talking about how many customers that visit our shop tell us that they got a similar 'real leather' bag offered in another shop for half the price. This always astonishes us, as when you buy real leather products, you cannot sell them cheaper as we do, while being profitable.
We also heard that there are leather shops in Hoi An that sell bags made of 50% real leather and 50% fault leather, which makes it even harder for the customers to spot. So we urge every visitor, both locals and tourists form abroad, to pay attention, and test the leather yourself to find out, if it's a real animal hide or not.
If you want real leather - Be suspicious of too cheap prices
We've once before written a blog post about how you can check if you're about to buy a real or fake leather product. But due to recent events we're happy to explain it once again. We also demonstrate the following test regularly to the customers in our Hoi An leather shops.
Hold a flame right underneath a small area of the leather bag.
→ If it's real leather a black smut will appear, no smell, flame or smoke.
→ If however you're holding a flame close to fault leather, the leather will start to melt, smoke will arise and eventually the fault leather will catch flames.
Fake leather - Strap catches fire
Real leather - only black smut appears
Chances are if it's fake leather the shop owner wouldn't let you perform the test yourself but do this for you on a real leather patch.
If you come to Da Bao, we're happy to lend you our lighter to try it for yourself, as we're 100% sure, our products pass the test. No matter which part of the bag you're testing.
Some of our backpacks are lined with 100% cashmere or silk, but I wouldn't know of a test to prove this to you, just yet 🙂