Leather Shoes - Exotic

Leather Shoes - Exotic

When we speak of leather shoes we instantly think shoes made from cow hide leather but there are many other animal skins used to make leather shoes.

Take for example crocodile leather shoes.

Crocodile Leather Shoes are immediately associated with exotic, luxurious elegance. If you want a pair of cheap shoes you won’t be buying crocodile leather shoes. Only designers in the league of Gucci, Prada etc make shoes using crocodile leather.

Crocodile Leather Shoes are highly sought after and are highly valued. The crocodile skins come from commercially raised animals. The skins are tanned and finished by specialist tanneries. Only the abdominal part of the skin is used for the making shoes.

Another reptile skin used to make leather shoes is snake skin. The most popular snake skins used for making shoes are the cobra, python and sea snake. Snake leather is also classed as exotic leather. When snake leather is used to make shoes the distinct patterns of the snake are prominently displayed on the shoe.

There are seven processes for turning exotic skins into leather shoes.  They all follow the same seven processes; fleshing, relaxing, pickling, tanning, de-scaling, oiling and finishing.

Eel is another exotic skin used for luxury leather shoes.  Eel leather is silky smooth and soft to touch and has beautiful horizontal patterns like a pin stripe suit. Although Eel leather is a lot stronger than cow leather it is also one the softest.

Another, exotic leather is shark skin. Shark leather is eleven times stronger than traditional cowhide leather.

These are just a few of the available leathers from exotic animals. The demand for these leathers is in the minority. 

Shoes made from exotic leathers come from factories that do not use animals that are from endangered or threatened species.