skai® Faux Leather

Contract furnishing

The contract sector places high demands on our skai® faux leather. Materials used for headboards in hotels and on cruise ships or for seating in restaurants and stadiums must have flame-retardant properties to protect passengers and guests if there’s an emergency. Our products meet a wide variety of flammability standards. skai® Parotega NF and skai® Palma NF fulfil the strict building material class 1, meaning they comply with the very strictest flame retardant directives.

The materials chosen for contract furnishing applications should be highly durable and suitable for the task at hand. Seats in areas with a high number of visitors need to offer good abrasion resistance to stop the furniture wearing. skai® Pandoria Plus can withstand 100,000 Martindale cycles, meaning it complies with the most stringent requirements.

Furniture designers and manufacturers

When creating their pieces, furniture manufacturers and designers as well as interior designers and decorators find real inspiration in the attractive designs, strong structures and on-trend colors of our artificial leathers. With the help of our faux leather for furniture, they always create emotionally touching living worlds with irresistible appeal, regardless of whether our materials are used on the couch, on the armchair or on the wall. Just look around and it becomes quite clear that our products have found their way into all corners of our day-to-day lives: at home, in the car, at work, on holiday and in our downtime. In every situation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They enrich and add beauty to our lives. They make us feel nice and comfortable at any hour of the day or night.

With skai® cool colors Venezia and skai® Neptun, we offer innovative outdoor faux leather. skai® cool colors Venezia is a high-quality upholstery fabric for outdoor use whose surface significantly reduces the warming of the upholstery material in direct sunlight. Special cool colors pigments reflect up to 80% of near-infrared radiation. This reduces the heating of the upholstery material by up to 25%. This outstanding technology has already proven itself in other business areas, such as convertible seat covers or window frames.

Here applies: The darker the color, the greater the effect. In the outdoor sector, skai® cool colors Venezia now allows the use of colored synthetics across the entire spectrum, which was previously problematic due to heating.

The outdoor material skai® Neptun – either in Caleri or Pescara embossing – is also available in many summer colors. It has everything an upholstery material needs to withstand all weather conditions. The extremely robust material is lightfast and waterproof. All other values are also far above the norm. This makes the surface a successful long seller, especially for outdoor use, for example in cafés and restaurants. 

What is faux leather?

From an early stage, attempts have been made to produce leather imitations i.e., cheap and durable alternatives to temperamental and scarce real leather that were easily available by the meter. Artificial leather in the strictest sense has been around since the middle of the 20th century. It consists of at least two components: a textile substrate made of natural or synthetic fibers onto which a cover layer of colored plastic is laminated on a PU or PVC base.

Faux vs. real leather

Real leather is one of the oldest cultural goods manufactured by humans. As far back as the Stone Age, it was used as clothing, protection, containers, and more. Natural leather is obtained from animal skins in a complex process. To render it pliant and durable, it is mechanically and chemically processed. 
Artificial leather, on the other hand, is a synthetic leather imitation that can be industrially manufactured in any quantity to be sold by the meter. Material properties, appearance and texture can be endlessly varied: from the popular patterns of a wide variety of natural leathers to textile fabric textures including seams and stitching, right through to custom technical embossing.

Advantages of faux leather

The obvious advantage of artificial leather is that it contains no animal components, and therefore meets the requirements for vegan textiles. In addition, every roll of artificial leather has exactly the same properties and can be produced in qualities, colors and finishes that rarely or never occur in nature: from black to copper, brown, ochre, slate gray, mustard yellow or moss green. In terms of its look and feel, artificial leather is almost impossible to distinguish from real leather. And when it comes to ease of care and robustness, artificial leather is even further ahead! Unlike real leather, it cannot be damaged by UV radiation or moisture. It doesn’t fade, or become brittle or stained. With careful maintenance, artificial leather still looks almost new, even years later.
Last but not least, artificial leather is a particularly sustainable material: vegan, durable, and in many cases partly recycled, thanks to innovative substrates.

Processing skai® faux leather

Faux leather can be manufactured, transported, stored, and processed in large rolls to be sold by the meter. Imitation leather is more economical and quicker to manufacture than real leather; less trimming is required during processing. Artificial leather can be cut, pinned, sewn, nailed, or glued, easily and safely. Depending on the product and application, our skai® faux leather can also be pulled around curves and edges.

How is skai® faux leather manufactured?

Manufacturing of faux leather: An elastic cover layer made of PU or PVC plastic is applied to a substrate made of synthetic fibers on large machines, after which the foam layer is applied. This is followed by surface embossing of the leather imitation: cowhide, ostrich or creative embossing – almost everything is possible and is even part of the skai® standard repertoire. Finally, a transparent protective layer protects the surface from dirt, abrasion and UV radiation.

Faux leather – cleaning and maintenance

Cleaning and care of faux leather: It is an extremely easy-to-clean upholstery material. In most cases, all that’s needed is to wipe the surface with a warm, mild soap solution and a microfiber cloth, and then dry it. A soft hand brush can also be used for heavier soiling. In contrast to open-pored real leather, leather imitation is not harmed by juice or even red wine stains, once the mark is immediately wiped off the fabric. In situations where artificial leather upholstery is subject to heavy-duty use, for example in the catering trade, the innovative staynu coating ensures unrivalled resistance to soiling – even a permanent marker stain can be easily removed!

How can I buy skai® faux leather?

skai® artificial leather can be ordered directly from us for orders above a certain quantity. You can also order artificial leather samples online beforehand, with no commitment. Our sales staff will be happy to advise you. Just call or email us!

Order your faux leather samples free of charge now!

Do you want to see and feel these high-quality materials for yourself? Simply add the samples you need to your shopping cart on the corresponding product page and send your order to us right away.

Do you want to buy a special material? Then take advantage of our fantastic advice and fast service.