How Suede Is Made: From Hide to Nap, and What Makes Good Suede

Suede is made by tanning a skin or a split of hide, then buffing its underside with abrasives until the fibers stand up as a soft nap. Lamb is the main source, with goat, calf and deer also common, according to Wikipedia's suede entry. How well the skin is split, shaved and buffed decides whether you get a fine, even nap or a shaggy one.

This page is part of our guide to leather tanning and production. It follows suede through the tannery and shows what to check before you buy.

Suede, nubuck and split suede compared

The word comes from French gants de Suède, "gloves from Sweden". Suede was first used for women's gloves.

Step 1: Choose the skin

Suede is usually made from younger or smaller animals. Splits from thick cow and deer hides can be sueded too, but their fiber structure gives a shaggy nap.

At the Leeds suede tannery Charles F. Stead, as described by Sneaker Freaker, about 90% of the raw material is bovine. The rest is antelope and specialty skins such as kudu.

Step 2: Tan the skin

The skin goes through the usual beamhouse and tanning steps first. An Italian leather wholesaler says suede is typically chrome tanned.

Some suede tanneries skip this stage and buy skins already tanned. Charles F. Stead receives them as wet blue or wet white. See what is a tannery? for how the work is split between plants.

Step 3: Split and shave to thickness

A splitting machine separates the top grain from the drop split, as the Shoemakers Academy glossary explains. A thick drop split can be split again into a middle split and a flesh split. Learn more in how leather is split into layers.

Shaving levels the thickness. At Stead, shaving slices away fatty tissue and starts to open the nap. The blade angle changes how dense the fibers feel.

Step 4: Dye, retan and soften

Wet skins are dyed and retanned. Fat liquors such as tallow or fish oil are added for softness. The skins are then dried to about 10-20% moisture, staked to flex the fibers and vacuum dried flat.

Step 5: Buff the nap

This step makes suede suede. The underside is buffed on cylinders wrapped in sandpaper, in several passes. Too much pressure flattens the nap and too little leaves it uneven.

Step 6: Finish, grade and measure

Finished skins are checked under daylight-standard (D65) lighting and sprayed with finishing products. Like other leather, they are then machine-measured, because leather is sold by area.

What makes good suede

Use these checks on a jacket, glove or shoe:

1. Even nap. Brush a small area both ways. A patchy or flattened nap points to uneven buffing.
2. Fine, short fibers. Coarse, shaggy fibers are typical of splits from thick, mature hides.
3. Body for the job. Split suedes vary. The strongest come from grain splits with the grain fully removed, or from flesh splits shaved to the right thickness.
4. Thickness stated. For example, Leather Collection lists its men's suede jacket as 0.9-1.0 mm goatskin and its suede gloves as 0.8-0.9 mm lambskin.

On price, one tannery guide quotes split and suede split at about EUR 0.60-1.20 per sq ft, below every grain leather on its list (EUR 1.20-6.00). A suede made from a whole lambskin or goatskin is a different material from a split, even though both are called suede.

Suede's downsides and why it can't get wet

Suede has no tough outer grain, so it is softer but less durable than full-grain leather. Its open pores absorb liquids and dirt quickly.

Excess moisture can damage it, so it should not be washed with soap and water or in a machine. A leather wholesaler notes that neither suede nor nubuck is naturally waterproof.

The store's own care advice follows the same lines: use a soft suede brush, a suede eraser on small marks, keep out of heavy rain, and dry at room temperature away from heaters.

Suede you can order made to measure

Leather Collection's beige suede jacket is hand-stitched to order in 0.9-1.0 mm goatskin suede. The store also lists lambskin suede gloves, goatskin suede pants and suede shearling pieces. The product pages give the hide and thickness, but not the tanning method.

Related pages

• How leather is produced
• Vegetable-tanned leather hides: what to know
• For how finishes compare, see types of finished leather and how they differ.

FAQ

What animal is used to make suede?

Mainly lamb, but also goat, calf and deer. Cow and deer splits can be sueded as well.

What does "suede finish" mean?

The surface has been buffed to a short nap, usually on the flesh side or a split. Nubuck is the same idea on the grain side.

What happens if suede gets wet?

It absorbs water quickly, and too much moisture can damage it. Let it dry at room temperature, away from heaters.