Oak Leathers Leather Messenger Bag

If you just need a bag that looks like leather, this will be fine. But it’s not dat all leather. The smell is very chemically like they lubed it up with something so it would smell like leather. It smells like wood stain. It’s a good substitute and almost convincing to the untrained eye. But I’ve been working with leather my entire life - my step father was a cobbler and I’m still a leather working hobbyist - and this is not genuine leather. One of the ways you can tell is by looking at the back of the little pen holders. The reverse side of genuine leather has a texture to it. It’s the inside of the animal’s skin. Like, check out the backside of a genuine leather belt of mine. Also, look at the edge grain of the same belt. You can see how there are different layers to the leather. And, fair enough, belt leather will be thicker than bag leather, but even thinner boot leather has similar properties. I also included some images of some high quality boots for comparison. Now, compare that to the “leather” of this bag. Having said all that, it seems like a really good quality bag made of quality materials. It looks like it will get a cool patina as it ages, but it won’t have the durability of leather. I’m definitely returning this.