It is likely that it has happened to all of us at some time: they sell us pig for a hare and we are caught in the lie without even knowing it until later, when those shoes that promised a durable leather begin to weaken. Or the trendy metallic finish is streaked with a hike or two.
You can feel calm! It is something frequent and it does not happen only to you. It is difficult to distinguish the effectiveness of certain materials, the type of construction and the overall quality of a shoe without a clinical eye. One should take a basic course so that one can study the shoes before buying them but it would be too much, right? But at least we can take into account the characteristics of some manufacturing materials that, if they are of poor quality, can become a certain catastrophe.
One of these cases is that of charol, a material that can look very sophisticated if it is of quality or bordering on the mundane if it looks like any plastic. The secret of patent leather is in its manufacturing process. Consider:
Patent leather is nothing other than leather that has been coated with a varnish or lacquer. Everything to achieve a mirrored and shiny surface. The varnish can be pigmented and it is common to contain vegetable oil, cellulosic derivatives and synthetic products such as plastic. But there is also another requirement, so that the material can be classified as patent leather lining must have a thickness that does not exceed 0,15 mm.
When these steps are not respected is when those shoes appear on the scene that are far from delicate patent leather. It occurs because instead of lacquer or varnish a preformed plastic sheet, usually PVC and in addition the limit of 0,15 mm is exceeded, a key factor when it comes to providing delicacy.
Finally, there is also the laminated patent leather or plated patent leather, which is a leather covered with a plastic sheet whose thickness exceeds 0,15 mm but in turn is less than half the total thickness of the finished material.