The Leather Industry

There are roughly around 100 million cows in the United States. This equates to 1 cow for every human. When the cattle industry strips the cow of its primary product (the meat) the skin has traditionally been discarded. Instead of throwing this away leather tanneries buy this byproduct to repurpose and give what would have been waste in a landfill, a second life. This is tradition that has existed for thousands of years. When an animal is consumed for sustenance, humans have historically used every remaining part of the animal (in many cultures out of respect for the animal as well as scarcity). 

If we promote the use of faux (plastic) leathers, the resulting product will never rival that of actual leather leading to the product being thrown away and to be replaced and contribute to larger plastic consumption and hence waste.

We believe that the use of plastic is a much less sustainable activity than using the remains and byproducts of the meat industry. In the scenario where people no longer eat meat and no longer create leather as a byproduct or a situation that arises where an animal is killed solely for its leather, Loam will no longer have sufficient reason to tout leather as a sustainable material and will cease to use it in favor of an alternative.

We are adamant about the reduction in the use of plastic, and using it intelligently and sparingly where its properties are utilized to its fullest. The modern human has done something truly remarkable and invented a material that cannot be broken down by nature. We believe that it is important in a long term view that we significantly reduce our usage of plastics. We will expound on these reasons later.

We align with the Iroquoian concept of seven generation stewardship. This concept urges everyone living here right now to live and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future. It is our hope that with our products, we can begin to think with a larger outlook on humanity and life. We must ask ourselves whether the decision we make today would benefit our children, and our children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children. If we take a wider outlook and responsibility on how our consumption today will impact the generations of the future that had no say in how the world they are born into is shaped, we cannot in good faith continue our wanton consumption (figuratively and literally) of plastics.

We acknowledge, however, that the elimination of plastic overnight is not possible. Instead we must rethink our use and relationship with plastics. We need to consciously reduce our use of it in favor of equally applicable but harmonious materials with the earth that can be integrated back into where all of our materials first came from. To this end, we believe that a well-made product that can last a lifetime that never needs to be replaced is the most sustainable consumption behavior- artifacts of higher quality to replace what is  filled by the gap of inferior quality but greater quantity. 

Plastic should be expensive.

We must remember that plastics will never decompose. They will simply break down into smaller pieces. This is when the real problem begins. Every piece of plastic we use today will be around forever and already the cleaning of such waste is so massive that the energy consumption of cleaning is slated to outpace the impact of cleaning it all up. This is however only if we consider plastics in a myopic view of pure energy use. The problems of plastic extend much further, and today, we are beginning to understand why this is such an issue moving forward:

• Endocrine disruptor

• Early puberty in women

• Constant reduction of testosterone in men

• Carcinogenic

• Disruption of food supply

Recycling is a myth. The concept of recycling although admirable in its attempt is nothing more than a way to rationalize and appease the fact that plastic use is ultimately unsustainable and shortsighted for healthy living.

The use and effect of plastic consumption is a topic that is such a large and hairy monster that we have gotten too entrenched with that it is difficult to see a way out and this discomfort of the truth makes it difficult to face this problem. 

Construction Techniques

The chunky bifold is made entirely by hand using age-old techniques of leathercrafting. Every edge of the wallet is saddle stitched by hand which is impossible for machines to do. [Saddle stitching is a technique of stitching where two threads run through the stitches and provide a superior stitch. Even if the thread were to fail, it will not unravel and the other stitch will maintain the structural integrity. This is not the case for machine stitching, where a failure of the thread will compromise the entire stitching of that thread.]