Types of Synthetic Leather, Compared

Every synthetic leather is built the same way: a fabric backing with a polymer coating on top, embossed to look like grain. The differences that matter are which polymer, how thick the coating is, and what the backing is made of. The names on listings — PU, PVC, TPU, vegan, eco, leatherette, pleather — are mostly describing that coating, and sometimes describing nothing at all.

The five families at a glance

PU: the default fake

Polyurethane is what most synthetic bags, wallets and belts are made of. A polyester or cotton backing gets a polyurethane layer applied on top, then the surface is embossed with a grain pattern. It is soft, it drapes well, it takes any color, and on the shelf it is genuinely hard to distinguish from finished leather.

Its failure mode is the one everyone recognizes: after a year or three of flexing, the coating loses adhesion and begins to lift, first at corners and fold lines, then in sheets. Nothing underneath is leather, so there is nothing to condition, feed or restore — the material has simply come apart. Our full PU explainer covers where it does make sense to buy, because there are cases.

PVC: the older, stiffer one

Vinyl predates PU in this role and is still common in upholstery, cheap luggage and anything that needs to be wiped clean. It is generally stiffer and less breathable than PU, and its coating tends to be thicker. Because it is more rigid, it fails by hardening and then splitting along the lines where it bends most, rather than peeling in flakes.

“Leatherette” and “pleather” are informal words that usually point at vinyl, though people use them loosely for any synthetic. If a listing uses either without naming a polymer, assume you are being told the surface is plastic and nothing more.

TPU: the better plastic

Thermoplastic polyurethane is a genuinely tougher, more elastic member of the polyurethane family. It resists abrasion better, tolerates flexing longer, and is increasingly used where a maker wants a synthetic that will not visibly deteriorate within a season. It is also the material behind a lot of “eco leather” branding, because it can be made without the solvent-heavy wet process used for some PU coatings.

It is still a coating on a backing, and it still ends the same way. What TPU buys you is time.

Microfiber: the one that behaves differently

Microfiber synthetics are not a simple coating. Very fine synthetic fibers are formed into a dense mat and bound with a polymer, producing a material with some through-thickness structure rather than a skin over a fabric. That changes how it wears: instead of peeling off a backing, it abrades and pills, more like a textile.

It is the closest a synthetic gets to behaving like leather under wear, and it is priced accordingly — good microfiber costs more than cheap split leather. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whether you wanted a material that ages or one that stays looking new until it doesn’t.

Bio-based “leathers”

Cactus, mushroom mycelium, apple pomace, pineapple leaf fiber, cork — these are the newest entrants, and they are the hardest to generalize about. Most commercial versions are composites: plant material combined with a polymer binder, applied to a fabric backing. A few are closer to genuinely plant-dominant.

We are not going to tell you how long any of them last, because nobody honestly can yet — the products are too new for a decade of wear data to exist. What we will say is that the ones we have seen listed disclose the plastic content unevenly, so the useful question to ask a maker is what percentage of the material is polymer and what the backing is.

Decoding the label words

• “100% PU” — the visible surface is polyurethane. It says nothing about the backing, which is a different material entirely.
• “PU upper” — a footwear term. The upper is the outer face above the sole; the phrase discloses that this part is plastic. Sole and lining may be different materials again.
• “Premium PU” / “high-grade PU” — adjectives, not specifications. There is no grading system for polyurethane coatings on consumer listings.
• “Vegan leather” — describes what the material is not. Almost always PU or PVC. See PU vs. vegan vs. genuine for why the three get tangled.
• “Eco leather” — unregulated. It is applied both to water-based-PU synthetics and, confusingly, to some real leathers tanned to a lower environmental impact.
• “Genuine leather” — not a synthetic at all, despite being routinely mistaken for one. It is real leather of a low grade, and it deserves its own warning.

Where labeling rules bite is on the composition claim itself. The FTC’s leather guides say that when part of a product is non-leather material that looks like leather, that fact should be disclosed — the guides even list acceptable wordings like “imitation leather” and “vinyl coated fabric.” They also address backing material specifically: a leather surface bonded to a different material should say so when it is not obvious. That is why the honest listings say “PU” somewhere, and why the dishonest ones lean on a hide-shaped tag and an evocative brand name instead.

How to spot a synthetic on a listing

• Look for a polymer name. PU, PVC, TPU, polyurethane, vinyl, microfiber. Present anywhere in the copy, and you have your answer.
• Watch for material silence plus feature noise. Listings heavy on RFID slots, colors and dimensions but silent on what the outside is made of are usually silent on purpose.
• Check the cut edges in the photos. A synthetic edge shows a sharp, uniform line between the coating and its fabric backing. Leather edges are the same material through their whole thickness.
• Distrust the price gap. A structured, unlined, hardware-heavy bag selling for less than a decent wallet is not full-grain, whatever the photos suggest.

Bottom line

Synthetic leathers are not one material but five families, and the useful hierarchy runs roughly PVC at the bottom, ordinary PU next, TPU and microfiber above them, with bio-based materials too new to place. None of them ages; they all eventually fail at the boundary between coating and backing. That is not an argument against ever buying one — a cheap synthetic bag for an occasional use is a reasonable purchase — but it is the reason a synthetic and a full-grain hide are not comparable on price alone. For where real leather grades sit by comparison, see types of leather, and for how to check what is in front of you, the real-versus-fake tests.