The processing of animal skin is the most popular method for making leather materials. This practice can be traced back to the prehistoric era. Many animal rights activists are concerned about the method of obtaining animal skin because the leather business is a multi-billion dollar industry. People use animal leather for different purposes, like producing decoration materials, clothing, footwear, furniture covers, and different kind of equipment, including sporting ones.
Although the production of leather products does not stand for sustainability, the quality and the duration of many products is done over the years and it started fading slowly. Instead of sacrificing animals for using their skin, there are many sustainable ways industries can replace with.
Avoiding animal-based products across many industries, including the sports industry is something many countries have adopted. China is one of the few that quickly went for using leather alternatives, like vegan or synthetic leather. Even though the use of synthetic materials in the making of sportswear and equipment is not fully supported, it is man-made and it does count as sustainable.
As every Vegan Sporting Goods Store offers sports goods that are made of materials that are not making any harm to the environment, vegan, also known as faux leather, find its place in some of the sports products. Vegan leather is not leather at all and that means no problems for the organizations that stand for animals’ lives.
If you thought that vegan leather is made of plants, you are wrong. Manufacturers use polyvinyl chloride (PVC) referring to the plastic materials to produce most of the synthetic leather on the market. Many companies are implementing innovative methods in order to create the best vegan leather products with the use of natural materials.
As we know, most sporting products need long duration and high quality, and with the appearance of vegan leather that is somehow very close to animal leather. Reusing and recycling the old products of sports equipment also plays a big role in environmental sustainability.
Which sports products can be made out of vegan leather, instead of those made of animal leather?
The most common sport product every sport uses certainly needs an exchange in sustainability and turns to the use of vegan products are sports balls.
Many sports brands started offering soccer balls, made of natural materials. Some of the soccer balls are made only of plants, although the use of synthetic materials that can be recycled and reused is another great option to contribute and save the environment. Eco-friendly sports balls are produced in various sizes that are for different ages. Kids have size 3, and adults and professionals use Size 5 Soccer Ball.
Baseballs that are made of genuine leather can be also made of synthetic versions. Other baseball pieces of equipment, such as gloves are also on the list of vegan leather products in the sports industry.
Basketballs shouldn’t be forgotten when talking about eco-friendly products in the sporting industry, whether used outdoors or indoors. These sports balls are either made of rubber, which can be recycled and reused, or a synthetic composite. Leather is also another main material these types of balls are made of, but it is only eco-friendly if the leather is vegan.
Leather, combined with synthetic elements and glue are the elements of another sports ball – Volleyball ball. Different materials are used for indoor and outdoor volleyball both models can be made of sustainable materials.
Not only sports equipment can be made of eco-materials. The same applies to footwear and sports clothing. Returning your old and used sports shoes to the stores and factories is a trend that involved many people adding value to the environmental responsibility. All they need to do is bring back their used equipment, whose materials will be reused to produce brand new shoes or other equipment.