Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 2 Years of Inspired Fakes

Sources and Acknowledgments

ckno~ledgmentg Sources and& While the research for Faux Realrests in part on a familiar bibliographical edifice of published books and articles,it draws at least as heavily on interviews , archival records, private papers, and tours of industrial facilities. It relies on journal articles, technical glossaries, U.S. government reports, and scholarly dissertations; on ads, annual reports, brochures, popular articles , patents, websites, and online forums; on fiction that bears on its broader themes; and on my own experience as an amateur leather craftsman . In the pages that follow, I try to leave readers with a sense of how Faux Realcame to be; through this reverse engineering, I suppose, a reader could come away with quite another view of the whole subject. In the text, I've written about a few patents in detail but the number of patents devoted to natural and imitation leather runs to many thousands . So I have not tried to methodically survey them or to uncover patterns among them-as, for example,Amanda Lindsay has done in her doctoral dissertation devoted to microfibers, cited below. Thanks to Theresa Riordan, for her help in navigating the patent system. While writing this book I reviewed substantial runs of the following specialized and trade publications: American Crafi American Shoemaking Boot and Shoe Recorder, Du Pont Magazine; Japan Textile News, Leather Crajers and Saddlers/ourna&Leather Manufdcturer,Journal of theAmeri- 248 FAUX REAL can Leather ChemistsAssociation;Journal of Coated Fabrics,Journal of the Society ofLeather Technologistsand Chemists;and WorldLeather. From these I typically cite only the most significant articles or those upon which I most heavily relied. Mentioned in this book are products and materials that may or may not be around five years from now, or 50. In the notes that follow, therefore , I don't normally cite routine press releases, annual reports, commercial websites, informational brochures, and advertising of the sort that crowds around any commercial product. It should be clear, though, that these helped me understand how these products were viewed by their manufacturers and how they were presented to the world. Above all, I am indebted to many men and women, cited by name below, who spoke to me about leather and its imitators, in person, by phone, or both; who let me visit their tanneries, shops, and other places of business; engaged in extensive email correspondence; or otherwise shared with me their knowledge, opinions, and recollections. None of them, of course, are responsible for any errors, omissions, or misinterpretations I may have made. SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS is structured as follows: Leather History, Culture, Lore Leathermaking Tanning Leather Goods, Products, Craft Global Markets Faux Leather Pyroxilin Vinyl Corfam Unpublished Sources William Rossi Collection Published Overviews On the Eve of Corfam Technical Articles Other Publications SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Microfiber Early Imitation Leathers Surveys and Reviews Techniques and Technologies Border Crossings Shoes Car Seats Other Commercial Battlegrounds Fashion and Popular Culture Human Senses Plastics and Polymers Materials Faux and Real LEATHER My knowledge of leather, its manufacture, its working into products, and its history have benefited greatly from visits to industrial and commercial facilities where I gained much thanks to the knowledge, patience, and goodwill of the following people: Mike Whalen, Griffin Industries, Cincinnati ; Richard C. Larochelle, Irving Tanning Company, Hartland, Maine; Nick Cory, Kadir Donmez, and the late Randy Rowles, Leather Research Laboratory,Universityof Cincinnati; StefaniaMiniati, Valentina Sgherri, and Paolo Quagli of Tuscany's Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata a1 Vegetale; Giorgio Tempesti of Conceria Tempesti; Stefano Casella, Puccini Attilio tannery; and Howard F. Shrut, Shrut & Asch Leather Company, Boston. Members of the American Leather Chemists Association,whose ranks I joined while working on this book and whose 100th anniversary conference in St. Louis I attended, were an unfailing source of contacts and information. Special thanks to Waldo Kallenberger, kingpin of the ALCA leather discussion forum, whose fascination with all things leathery has been contagious, and sometimes provocative, across the three years during which I stepped into his world and that of his ALCA colleagues. Many thanks, as well, to Jean Tancous, who let me spend the day with her in her basement laboratory, happily talking leather all the while; and to Mike Redwood for his thoughtful insights about the industry into which he was born and to which he has contributed so much. I have also profited from interviews with Jim Bates, Sergio Castro, Gene Killik, John Koppany, David Rabinovich, and Paolo Testi. Thanks, too, to Leather...