Canvas vs Leather: How to Choose the Perfect Bag for You

Priscilla Greene | May 26, 2022

Whether you want to refresh your accessories cabinet you or you are looking for an amazing gift for someone else, a bag is always a nice and practical gift. One of the most common dilemmas when buying a bag for you or someone else is canvas vs. leather.

Each type of fabric comes with its own advantages and disadvantages and each type of tote bag satisfies certain needs, while meeting some requirements and expectations. In order to help you make excellent choices for your work/travel/casual accessories department, we will talk about canvas vs. leather and try to learn which one is the perfect bag for you.

Canvas Bags

Canvas bags have been in fashion for hundreds of years. Thanks to new technologies, now we can enjoy canvas bags in various sizes, shapes, colors, functionalities, and price ranges. In other words, there is more to canvas than the eye can see and we will look at its pros and cons from all points of view.

Pros

•         Canvas is a much

  lighter and easier to carry

  fabric than leather.

•         Canvas is

  more versatile

  , meaning manufacturers can create

  a variety of shapes and styles

  of bags, that you can choose from, depending on the purpose and the occasion you need the bags for.

•         Canvas bags’

  durability

  comes from the fact that canvas is a plain-woven fabric that provides

  strength and sturdiness

  . The canvas fibers flex and adjust with weight and size of the items you place inside. A canvas tote will handle heavy items easier than other materials and it does not tear as easily.

•         As

  fashion versatility

  is concerned, you can find canvas tote bags , messenger bags, travel bags, and any other types of bags you can imagine featuring amazing colors and prints. You can style up canvas bags, paint them, decorate them or buy them in a myriad of prints, patterns, and crafted, handmade, unique designs.

•         Normally, canvas

  requires little maintenance

  . A simple shopping tote bag for instance is easy to clean in your washing machine. Most canvas bags are low-maintenance, as dust and debris go away if you use a bristle brush or a damp cloth to wipe them. You can also treat canvas for more durability with specialized sprays.

•         Canvas is

  eco-friendly

  and this is very important in a world more and more concerned with saving the planet and not using animals for fashion.

•         In case you think that canvas is not waterproof and we have to mention this on the disadvantages list, you have to know that

  there are plenty of methods to render canvas waterproof and make it resilient to the elements

  .

Cons

Now that we solved the dilemma with waterproof canvas, we have to move next to the disadvantages list regarding canvas bags.

•         From a fashion point of view, canvas bags are more forgiving in terms of looks. They have a sporty, dynamic flair to them. They

  look more casual than formal

  and they accompany mostly the young urban generation who is always on the run.

Even if some of the biggest designer brands use canvas as the primary material for their label bags, no one can argue against the fact that canvas is not Wall Street material – especially when it comes to formal business attires.

•         While we showed you plenty of celebrities wearing canvas bags, they do not make the Oscar ceremonies either, as

  they match more bohemian, young, and lighthearted outfits

  for both men and women.

Leather Bags

Leather bags have a timeless elegance to them that nobody can deny. Despite high levels of debate on using leather for any type of products – and thus endangering animals to harvest their leather – the world still uses leather shoes, bags, and other types of clothing and accessories for at least two reasons: well-treated leather is durable and it looks stylish in any given occasion.

Pros

•         Leather has been always the first preference over other materials because it can offer the wearer

  long years of service

  . It is also sturdy enough to endure rough handling and heavy weights, and it does not catch dirt easily.

•         Leather gets softer with age, while gaining a more refined look due to the patina that enhances the vintage, somehow rugged aspect of the leather. The typical patina is the indicator of the leather’s genuine quality. Genuine and high-end leather is

  the most upmarket and elegant material available for manufacturing fashion goods

  .

Cons

•         Despite popular knowledge, high-quality leather that features no chemical treatment

  absorbs water faster than waxed canvas

  . In other words, if rain catches you, you will have to dry the bag quickly. You can treat a leather bag with waterproof chemicals, but this means damaging its patina.

•         Leather is

  more high-maintenance than canvas or waxed canvas

  . It absorbs stains and oils very fast – and they damage the fabric – so you need to frequently clean leather bags with dry or slightly damp cloths.

•         Leather

  dries out quickly

  . Just as you treat your shoes with leather enhancing products, silicone-based shiners, and leather conditioner, so you should treat your leather bags so they keep their properties and looks.

• If the leather bag suffers damages from scratches, wear, and tear, you cannot simply take a needle and some thread to fix it up (as you can do with most canvas bags ). Leather r

  epairs require professionals

  to handle the situation and make the necessary corrections.

•         Besides

  not being eco-friendly

  , leather products in general are

  more expensive

  than canvas ones. You can waterproof your canvas bag at a fraction of the price of the cheapest leather bag you find on the market.

Canvas vs. Leather: What Bag to Choose?

In short, both leather and canvas are durable, sturdy, great looking, and promising you long years of service. Waxed and waterproofed canvas is just as good as leather, as we use it for outdoor equipment and tents even – so this should not be a problem for anybody.

When you want to pick out of the two materials in a canvas vs. leather challenge, you first need to answer the following questions: what is the occasion you are going to wear your bag for and what attire will you wear together with the bag? Beyond the fashion differences, canvas is better than leather in terms of maintenance, durability, and reliability. Moreover, and we can’t stretch this enough, canvas is eco-friendly and no animal has to die in order for you to carry your things.

Even though nylon and leather are some of the most common materials for bags, the two couldn’t be more different from one another. Leather is often regarded as the best material for bags with its long lifespan, authenticity, and soft to the touch texture. Nylon on the other hand…well some people think that it’s just a polite word for plastic. As is often the case, the distinctions are much more nuanced in actuality. 

When it comes to nylon vs leather bag, there are some major differences to consider in terms of price, style, value and sustainability. 

Let’s see how nylon and leather compare when they are considered in regard to some of the biggest factors that one has to consider when finding a new bag.  

Nylon vs Leather: Value

When it comes to initial price, leather bags may seem expensive. However, if one thinks about a leather bag as an investment, rather than a piece of fast fashion—that quickly changes. Sure, it costs more, but over time leather bags prove much better value for the money. 

Source

:

Pinterest

Is nylon a good material for bags? Well…that depends on what you look for in a bag. When comparing price points, nylon comes in far below leather as a cheaper, more accessible alternative. Unfortunately, with that cheap price, comes a short lifespan. Nylon bags are prone to tears or rips and often need repairing or to be flat out replaced after only a few months. 

Nylon vs Leather: Quality

Authentic leather is warm, complex, and delicate to the touch. Plus, it’s durable as hell. Leather is renowned across the fashion world, and considered one of the best materials for bags, because of its ultra-smooth, buttery texture and its polished, expensive looking finish.

Nylon products, on the other hand, often feel scratchy and unpleasant, with a cold exterior. Made of threaded thermoplastics melted into fabrics and shapes, nylon is known as a tough, elastic, and coarse fabric best suited from products that require extreme durability like hot air balloons, parachutes, and the hosiery of working people. However, this reputation changed when nylon tights hit the market. In the 1930s, when depression era scarcity made silk and cotton too expensive for many American households, nylon tights were a much-celebrated scientific breakthrough.   

Source

:

Nylon stocking history

Nylon vs Leather: The Environment

Source: India toxic tanneries

Leather is a fabric made from the hide from an animal. Some luxury brands pride themselves in using only lambskin leather—or, translated into less fancy terms, the skin of baby sheep. Needless to say, this product has an enormous environmental footprint and threatens the sustainability of ecological systems with its extractive demands. Tanning leather, and removing animal by-products from the raw material, requires toxic processes that use “chrome” a serious carcinogen which often spills into water sources.

While nylon is a much less environmentally destructive fabric to produce, it also comes with a host of problems. Nylon is not biodegradable, and so, anything made from the material will persist in the environment indefinitely. Bags made out of nylon, and other man-made materials, are likely to fill up landfills as soon as they go out of style. Some brands, however, are combatting this quality by working with recycled nylon to give discarded materials a second chance at life.   

So? Is Nylon a good material for bags?

Leather is celebrated as a top luxury material for bags. Nylon, on the other hand, has an admittedly bad reputation. BUT! Before you condemn all plastic based fabrics, it’s important to remember that polymer fabrics come in all shapes and sizes. Some expertly crafted work can use scientific magic to make a faux leather. Which leather is best for bags? It’s all about the intention brands put into their craft. While some old-school handbag companies would rather die than switch from real leathers that require animal suffering, innovative and modern brands are seeing that the lives of animals don’t have to be sacrificed for quality. 

Nylon vs Leather: Conclusion

When it comes to choosing the best material for bags, remember, it’s not just nylon vs. leather, it’s also sustainability vs. waste and kindness vs. animal cruelty. 

Luckily for the twenty first century shopper, modern science has advanced to such a point that it is now, there is now an unexpected answer to the much-asked question: which leather is best for bags? If you care about animals more than tradition—that answer just might be…a faux “leather” made out of a recycled man-made material like nylon! If you need inspiration, look no further than Hozen’s new Cinch Backpack which is made of 90% recycled plastic but feels as luxurious as real leather.

If you still hesitate with eco-friendly bags material. Then visit our latest blog series where we explain more detail about leather alternatives.

What Is Eco Leather? And Why You Should Have It in Your Closet?

What Is Vegan Leather? What Are Their Benefits to The Environment?

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