We’re excited to introduce The Hog Ring community to our newest site sponsor, Hydes Leather — who’s at the 2016 Detroit Autorama this weekend to help unveil three gorgeous vehicles sporting interiors trimmed in their quality leather hides.
“We are very proud to announce our sponsorship of The Hog Ring,” said founder and CEO Aaron Laithwaite. “The online community has proven itself to be a great resource for the auto upholstery trade. We find ourselves reading through the articles for trends and developments in our industry and have come to rely on The Hog Ring for industry news.”
Focusing specifically on automotive leather, Hydes is North America’s leading source for OEM leathers from Maserati, Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and more! That’s not all, Hydes does custom dyeing, color-matching, perforation, embossing, etching, embroidery, skiving and weaving. They also supply Alcantara!
Hydes only deals with high-grade leather treated specifically for use in automobiles. This is important because some competitors sell furniture and low-grade hides to auto upholstery shops. These inferior hides degrade quickly and give shops a bad reputation.
Hydes‘ products are selected from the highest quality raw materials. Their premium tanneries use light, breathable protective coatings for wear resistance and UV protection — not the heavy plastic-feeling top coat you’ll find on inferior products. This means their hides are breathable; staying cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They’re also treated to minimize off-gassing, so their hides won’t cause car windows to fog.
What’s more, Hydes‘ only sources its products from cattle farms where the climate is cold and the caretakers use European farming practices. This ensures the leather is thick and strong, and there are less bug bites and no barbed wire blemishes for trimmers to cut around. The result is higher yields from every hide, less waste, less environmental impact and more profit for shops.
Clearly, there’s a reason why we chose to partner with Hydes Leather — they’re the best.
Visit their website to read testimonials from some of the hottest auto upholstery shops and most in-demand trimmers in the industry. Or, better yet, attend the 2016 Detroit Autorama in Michigan this weekend to see and feel Hydes‘ quality leathers for yourself.
Aaron and his team will be at the annual event to help unveil three awesome vehicles trimmed in Hydes leather and answer all of your questions. The vehicles to be unveiled include…
1969 Chevrolet Camaro by HS Customs:
1955 Chevrolet Roadster by G3 Rods:
1970 Plymouth Barracuda by Weaver Customs:
To learn more about Hydes Leather, check out HydesLeather.com and follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. To order their catalog or set up a business account, call (604) 446-0379 or email info@hydesleather.com.
Hello Hydes Leather!
Thanks for sponsoring The Hog Ring!
There is a lot of misinformation about automotive leather out there, so it’s great to have a tannery as part of the forum.
My first question – are there any leather conditioners that actually do anything? If the coatings applied to automotive leather are there to prevent penetration, it seems like a conditioner wouldn’t do any good until the coating wears off or cracks enough to allow the conditioner to get in. By then it’s too late.
Any feedback?
Thanks,
Jim
Hi Jim,
Very good question.
Yes, there is a lot of info out there, and you’re right, a lot of it is misleading.
Auto leather is coated with Pigmented dyes to give even coloring, and urethanes to give it UV and abrasion protection.
By what I have just stated, I think you can determine how much penetration by liquid might be possible.
Some may find a way to penetrate, but not a lot. Most of the creams and conditioners will simply sit on the surface. It will give you tactile satisfaction, but there is not much evidence that it will dramatically extend the life of the leather. This is not like oiling your baseball mitt.
For routine maintenance our recommendation is to use a very lightly dampened cloth with PH neutral soap and tepid purified water to periodically clean your leather.
If you would like to use a conditioner, we would recommend 2 applications per year. Anything more is probably overkill in our opinion. But one thing to be sure to steer clear of is anything with silica in it. This will dry the surface and cause cracking.
If you have any further questions about your leather, please don’t hesitate to ask.
(Please keep in mind that this is our opinion on the subject)
Regards,
Aaron