Alligator Leather: The Most High-End Leather To Make Leather Goods

What Is Alligator Leather? 

As the name suggests, the origin of alligator leather is alligator skin. There are four primary parts of alligator skin used to make leather products: Back, tail, belly, and side.

Alligator leather is light, so it's favorable to make high-quality shoes, wallets, leather watch straps, handbags, clothing, and other goods. Furthermore, due to the unique supply from this exotic animal, alligator leather is exceptionally durable and expensive. 

Alligator Leather Characteristics

Alligator Leather Surface

As we have mentioned before, alligator leather is divided into four main parts. Each part has different skin surface characteristics.

• Back skin: Back skin has rows of spines along the alligator body. These spines are pretty sturdy, making the back skin firm and hard.  
• Tail skin: Tail alligator skin has sail-shaped scales. After the tanning process, these scales are pressed to the skin's surface to make leather production more convenient. 
• Belly skin: The surface of belly alligator skin is smooth and soft, and it is relatively durable. 
• Side skin: It is the skin part on both sides of an alligator. Its surface is flat, including each leather cell that is similar to marble. 

If the tanning process is done right, the surface of alligator leather should be shiny, smooth, and beautiful. 

Alligator Leather Durability 

Alligator leather is one of the most durable leather types. Natural oil prevents the leather from cracking, even in extreme temperatures or contact with sunlight. When folding, it doesn't crack and remains its look, also helping this leather type long-lasting. 

Alligator Leather Elasticity 

Alligator leather is soft and has relatively good elasticity. You could press on the alligator leather surface to see it gradually recovers to its original form after just a short period.   

Alligator Leather Water Resistant 

Although alligator leather is good at water resistance, you should never let this leather type contact water for a long time. Because genuine natural leather is never 100% water repellent, it could become hard and lose elasticity if the leather is wet and dry.  

Alligator Leather Production Process

The tanning process of alligator leather is pretty long. First, alligator skin is collected from the farms and scraped to remove the flesh until the inner skin has white color. After that, the skin is cleaned and left to dry. Once it's dry, salt is applied to the surface to ensure that all skin parts are arid. 

The next step is pickling. The whole alligator skin is soaked in a mixture of bleach, salt, and borax for about 48 hours before being soaked again in a mix of washing liquid and warm water to remove all fat. 

Two of the tanning ways are Vegetable tanning and Chrome tanning. For vegetable tanning, tanners use natural tannins such as tree bark, giving the skin softness without any chemicals or other acids. Meanwhile, Chrome tanning gives leather products more durable, stretchy, and water-resistant. Usually, the skin is tanned twice using Chrome tanning to get the characteristics as desired. 

Alligator Leather Care & Cleaning 

Alligator Leather Condition

Alligator leather requires the proper care to preserve and increase its longevity of it. Over time, the natural oils in crocodile skin will dry out, making it less durable. For good care, you should clean and condition your alligator leather products at least once a month. 

You will need to use a leather conditional designed for alligator leather. Beeswax is a great one in this case. Of course, you could also try other conditioners. Just remember to test your conditioner in a small leather area before applying it to the whole surface. To help the conditioner penetrate the leather, you should use a soft cloth and rub gently to its surface and leave it for about 15 minutes. After that, polish the leather surface with a soft cloth and let it dry. 

Cleaning Alligator Leather

You could use a cotton rag damped in warm water to wipe it gently for cleaning alligator leather. Then, use another dry cloth to wipe the leather and leave your leather in a dry, cool place to make it fully dry but remember to avoid letting it contact direct sunlight. If you want to use leather cleaners, you should use cleaners exclusively designed for alligator leather or crocodile leather. 

Storage

Avoid letting your alligator leather fold or stretch for a long time. It will weaken the skin structure. Also, the leather could dry out fast if you use plastic bags to store it. Keeping your alligator leather products in a box or a cool, dry place and apart from direct heat or sunlight helps preserve their durability as well as quality. 

Pros & Cons Of Alligator Leather

Pros

• Alligator leather is considered one of the most durable leathers due to its solid structure and high elasticity. It is also breathable leather with a toughness even when contacting nature. 
• Alligator leather is more long-lasting than other leather types as it does not crack easily. 
• The most notable thing about alligator leather is its unique pattern, making it very different and giving the leather products a luxurious, valuable, and exotic look. 
• Almost all part of alligator skin is used to produce leather goods, giving each product a beautiful glimpse of this exotic animal. 

Cons

• Due to the short supply of this exotic animal and the high quality of this leather type, alligator leather is the most expensive leather in the world. 
• Many products from alligator skin are counterfeited and sold, so consumers have to distinguish the genuine alligator leather to select. 

Some Alligator Leather Products

Alligator Leather Watch Strap

Alligator leather is durable and unique, giving the watch straps a great look and high quality. Wearing an alligator leather watch strap will upgrade your watch, making it stylish and luxurious. 

Alligator Leather Wallet

This leather type is also a good material for wallets due to its look and appropriate characteristics. 

Alligator Leather Shoes

Alligator is very durable, so it's an ideal material to produce leather shoes. 

Alligator Leather Jacket 

Based on the unique pattern and high elasticity, alligator leather is used in leather jackets giving you a distinctive and luxurious look.  

Aug Leather Uses Alligator Leather To Make Alligator Leather Watch Straps & Wallets

At Aug Leather, we use Alligator Leather to make premium leather watch straps and wallets. For Alligator leather watch straps, Aug Leather has many watch strap types for a variety of watches, such as Apple watch straps, Rolex leather watch straps, Omega watch straps, Panerai watch straps, Seiko watch straps, and Vintage watch straps. 

High-end and unique alligator leather is crafted by our craftsmen who have a lot of experience in leather production, making Aug Leather's handmade leather watch straps exceptionally luxurious, fashionable, and distinctive. If you are considering selecting a watch strap, you could contact us for more consultation. 

Conclusion

That is everything about Alligator leather. Nowadays, alligator leather is used commonly in clothes, leather watch bands, shoes, bags, furniture, etc., giving each product a fantastic look. After reading this article, we hope you know more about this unique leather type and select appropriate leather for your leather products.