Is Hatch Grain Leather Any Good? Get these 3 leathers instead!

Hatch grain leather is incredibly popular and rightfully so, maybe. There are 3 better alternatives to what in my opinion is the most overrated leather. I discuss my favorite natural grain leathers, kudu, peccary and camel leather.

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#shoegazing #horween #horweenshellcordovan #shellcordovan #shoegazing #shoecare

I always love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments.

@shellvedge on Instagram

[TxmmyBeats]

Hey man 👋🏻 not to get off topic, but what’re your thoughts on Thursday boots? Are they worth buying?

[bigvisk]

I stayed away from hatch grain for a while vecause of it beibg made generalky of corrected leather/lesser quality. That saud i bought some brown crocket and jones hatchvgrain about a month ago and love them. Might try a pair of conistons in hatch grain too.

[AssoziationHmH]

Hey there,
I think you make a solid point for the other leathers, but I wouldn’t say that hatch grain is overrated. I think this way just because of one of your points against them, that hatch grain can be made of lesser than perfect parts of leather.
I like my leather as it is and find nothing wrong with a bit more creasing, if that goes hand in hand with being able to use more of the hide.

Still a hatchgrain leather with some (at fist glance invisible) defects is a lot better looking to my eyes than any mass produced shoe while being more durable.
And if the hype around the leather makes this casual leather accessible for someone like me who cannot afford to spend more than 200$ for a shoe, then I‘m all for it.

Thanks for reading, if you have, and keep up the great work with your videos

[UnknownUser-rbpd]

Embossed leathers were developed for use in challenging environments. This was true of the original Russian leather that was famed for its tough character and also applies to Scotch grain and similar pebble grain leathers. These leathers are more effective at resisting scratches and abuse and from my experience seem to be better at resisting water stains and damage from repeated soaking in wet mud than other traditionally tanned leathers. The embossing process seems to seal and harden the surface,
I don't think it is a coincidence that these leathers were developed in countries with wet and harsh weather.
Modern silicon waterproofing treatments that are used to permanently impregnate leather fibres are better still but are relatively recent innovations and have been around only a few decades and are mainly used in hiking boots and similar.

[Ilsabb]

Nice video. Thanks for the insights. Who make the camel skill slip ons?

[liljuanito]

Cxl is not overrated just an abundance of it used all across footwear. It does the job. The cxl lottery is not the one id be counting on and expect to win all the time. I would always choose a calf over cxl if i didn't want any heavy pipey creases.

[wkashun]

IMO the problem with hatch grain (horween in particular, I dont have experience with hass) is that the embossed pattern can fade easily due to wearing or during the lasting process.

[Knowva]

I love my shell Crown North Hampton sneakers but the tongue squeaks like crazy so I never want to ware them. Which is ashame because they fit so well.

[liangchen]

Both cxl and Horween hatchgrain would definitely be in my most "overrated" leathers list. They don't crease as nicely as smooth calf. I like Maryam TPR because it seems to develop "less drastic patina", which I personally prefer. I'm glad to see museum calf is not in your list -- I love museum calf :)

[iuhuh]

I just ordered a pair of Iron Boots in their proprietary Russian Reindeer 😬. I normally don't like embossed leathers for the reasons you mentioned, I prefer a natural grain that shows the characteristics of the hide. But, hatch grain looks cool, and I like the tidbit of history that goes along with a russian reindeer replica. I mean if we want to talk about how popularized a leather is, kudu has become massively popular in the niche shoe space. It seems like almost every maker has something in kudu now, way more than hatch grain. But, I dont see an issue with that as long as they're not endangered and people enjoy wearing it.

[pepleatherlab]

I've always liked working with American Bison in full grain because of the texture. It's just impossible to find in veg tan. Every distributor I've investigated processes it in chrome tannage. 🙄 Sad but I work with what I can get. (sighs) That Kudu looks amazing btw.

[MrStreetninja]

In the words of Nick horween if it's embossed with anything it's a defect shell and it kills me companies charge premium price for a product that is not grade A

[frankyfingers]

Gonna say it. People are gonna get their pitch forks and come after me. Shell Cordovan is over rated. There I said it. It’s hard to work with, has very little give and a harder temper, it requires a lot of maintenance and patina poorly imo. And it’s shiny.