Leather
Leather is made from animal hide or skins, and is valued for its strength, longevity, and elasticity. To make leather, the hide, or animal skin, undergoes stages of chemical processes to clean, soften, tan, dye, stretch, dry, and finish the hide.
You can read more about our approach to animal welfare in PVH’s Animal Welfare Policy.
Leather Working Group provides environmental stewardship audits for leather tanneries to assess how leather is manufactured and what inputs are used during processing. Leather Working Group rated facilities have demonstrated higher performance in their leather manufacturing facilities.
Tommy Hilfiger is a member of Leather Working Group and requires any product labeled with Leather Working Group (LWG) to source its leather from a facility audited by Leather Working Group.
Recycled leather is an environmentally preferred material created by repurposing existing leather into new products, effectively diverting it from waste streams. This material retains the original structure of the leather, often involving processes such as cutting post-consumer leather into new shapes for different uses. By reusing existing leather and giving it a second life, recycled leather can reduce the environmental impact associated with new leather production.
Bonded recycled leather fibers are materials created from recycling traditional leather, utilizing existing leather scraps to form new products and redirecting leather away from waste streams. Unlike leather and recycled leather, recycled leather fiber is structurally distinct. It is produced by attaching leather scraps to a backing, resulting in a new material with a different structure from that of traditional leather or recycled leather.
Chrome-free tanned leather is leather that has been tanned without the use of chromium.
At a tannery, hides undergo a tanning process to be transformed into leather. Historically, natural resources, such as the bark of certain trees, were used for this purpose. In the 1800s, chromium tanning was developed, which allowed for a much faster tanning process using leather tanning agents that include chrome in their formulations. However, this process poses an increased chemical risk if not managed properly. Although chrome-free tanned leather involves a slower process, it eliminates the chemical risks associated with using chrome.
To verify chrome-free tanned leather a chemical test confirms that specific heavy metals and other chemicals used in conventional leather tanning were not used during the chrome-free tanning process.
Vegetable-tanned leather is leather that has been tanned using plant-based tannins, such as those derived from bark and leaves, to color the leather hides. These plant-based tannins replace some of the chemicals, like acidic salts, used in conventional leather processing. This results in a final product that incorporates fewer chemicals compared to standard chemical leather processing methods. Vegetable-tanned leather is verified through a chemical test that confirms specific heavy metals and other chemicals used in conventional leather tanning were not used during the vegetable tanning process.