In this leather guide, we’ll take a look at the Pueblo Leather.
If you’re into watches or have an appeal for well-made wallets or even leather phone cases, chances are you have heard the term, Suede.
For many, they would mistake the Pueblo leather for Suede, which is a type of leather made from the underside of the animal skin, usually lambskin which gives the leather a soft and smooth surface.
What is Pueblo leather then?
Type of Leather and Origin
Pueblo leather is from the Badalassi Carlo tannery in San Miniato, Italy and it is a vegetable-tanned leather.
San Miniato is the heart of the Tuscan leather district and it houses the highest quality vegetable-tanned leather in the world.
Badalassi Carlo has been producing their unique leathers for over 40 years now and they are regarded as one of the most renowned tannery.
Yes, the leather gives off a suede-like vibe but it’s not suede.
If you can tell, the leather has a matte, stone-ground finishing with a few distinguishable white fibres/scratches from the leather giving it a luxurious look. It feels a bit like micro-suede too, if you’ve touched one, you know how smooth and satisfying it feels.
Process
The leather is tanned with bark extracts and liquored with animal fats inside wooden barrels. It is then dyed with aniline (transparent colouring), air dried and stone polished. This is what gives the leather a stone-like finishing.
Most of the leather in the world are being tanned using plastic pigmentations, as for Pueblo, the advantage of using aniline helps with the preservation of the leather and emits the unique characteristics of every hide.
Due to consistency of the leathers, many tanneries use harsh chemicals in their processes to conceal the different complexion and nature of the hides which gives the leather an all-round similar look.
However, the making of this leather does not incorporate such chemicals which is why the leather is being valued due to the natural aesthetics it upholds.
Characteristics & Ageing
Before patina 
After patina
If you are wondering, they are the same leather!
Pueblo leather is probably one of the most dramatic leather in terms of ageing and patina.
Another interesting characteristic this leather bears is the light and pleasant aroma it gives off unlike the typical smell of the leather we know of.
The leather does not stretch and it does not crease too heavily which can be seen from the image above. Rather, it feels strong and durable while being smooth to the touch with a soft satin finish.
I’ve haven’t personally observed how the leather felt after it patinas but from the looks of it, it seems even more durable and perhaps has turned into a different texture. It’s like having two different kinds of leather in one, the excitement awaits!
Customers of Badalassi Carlo (Pueblo Leather)
As always, after introducing the leather and its origin, I’ll do the research for you on the different products you can find.
Here are some watch strap and small leather goods that uses Pueblo leather.
Nomad Watch Works (Price 35USD ~ $39 SGD)
One of my first recommendation would be the Pueblo leather straps from Nomad Watch Works. The Pueblo straps made by them comes with intricate details like hand painted edge finishing to ensures that the strap looks gorgeous from all angles. The lining used are made with Zermatt leather – a luxurious, hypoallergenic leather used by big brands such as Hermes to line leather products like bags, watch straps, etc. Combined with the rugged beauty, strength and durability of the pueblo leather, you would be hard pressed to find a better strap at this price.
If you’re keen to purchase any of their straps, make sure you use “Nomad360” for a 10% discount!
Finwatchstraps (Price €55.00 ~ $86 SGD)
As its name suggests, Finwatchstraps is a company from Finland! Talk about my love for the nordic!
If you’re wondering why, you can take a look at this article about my experience where I went to Iceland and purchased the 101 Watch Limited Edition from J&S Watch Co, link to the article here.
Moving on, can you imagine purchasing a watch strap from Finland?
It actually seems quite interesting and exhilarating (well ok at least for me, sorry) but you can just hope that Santa Clause throws in a present along with your package or the fur of the largest deer (moose) gets stuck in between the buckle so you’ve got yourself a souvenir from Finland.
In all seriousness, Finwatchstraps is a strap store like no other as they offer many exotic types of leather such as Reindeer, Shark, Stingray and Bull. Bet you’ve never heard of some of those before.
Etsy ( $100-$280 SGD)
You can find a wide range of wallets that are made from Pueblo leather on Etsy. If you do not know what Etsy, it is a platform for sellers to post their products, kind of like Carousell.
You can sort the wallets from the lowest price to the highest price and you’ll definitely find one that suits your taste!
I’ve gone into a few listings and generally all of the Pueblo wallets seem great so you’re practically spoilt for choice.
Final Thoughts
Hope you’ve enjoyed the article and our Leather Guide series so far!
We wanted to introduce you to the different kinds of leather available out there, especially when we use it for our watch straps and wallets as well. We hope this will educate you on the processes of the leather, origin and even the characteristics and ageing.
I’ve personally learned a lot just by writing these articles and if you would like to learn more, you can take a look at another leather guide on the Epsom Leather. Link to the article here.