America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge • Hacker News Board

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#191

Post by developer2 » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 2:13 AM UTC

rexgallorum2 wrote: post #117

stonogo wrote: post #61

I'd be interested to know how much of this has to do with the dilution of the meaning of 'leather' in terms of consumer goods. The market is flooded with garbage products, which are produced by slicing a thin veneer of leather and gluing it to a plastic backing, which is then sold as "bonded leather." It's gotten so bad that full-grain leather products are exceedingly rare. Since 90% of "leather" products are such aw…

A few years ago, I bought a hand made leather wallet from a leatherworker in Germany. It has a beautiful patina now and is in perfect shape. Quality matters.

Wallets are a very good example of an industry overrun with inferior "leather-based" products. "Genuine Leather" may as well be the brand name of the shittiest fake leather sold on Earth, because I'd bet that a majority (>50%) of "Genuine Leather" products on the market are complete bullshit.

The cost and brand name of a product mean nothing. You can buy a $10,000+ "Genuine Leather" wallet, claimed to be "handmade" by a top-5 wallet manufacturer brand name... and chances are it's all lies. They sell too many wallets for them to be handmade, so the fact is they use sewing machines with the cheapest labour they can get away with. The company is physically incapable of tracing the chain of custody of their leather; they'll tell you to your face it's "genuine" (bonus words for "locally sourced/farmed"), but that's a game of Operator/Telephone 10 players deep to the point where nobody remembers the truth.

tldr; Most leather, including "genuine leather", is anything but. That includes the largest brand names; in fact even more so, because the demand for their products is too high to secure any kind of guarantee of quality regarding sourced materials. How many large-scale manufacturers of leather products are willing to legally sign on the dotted line that they can prove which cow and farm any given wallet came from? Exactly, and that's 21st century capitalism at its core.

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#192

Post by johntash » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:03 AM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #143

xahrepap wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a really awesome leather belt that I got when I was 15. I stopped wearing it when I was 30 because my weight finally out outgrew the belt. Still have it. It's no worse today than it was when I got it as a teen. I go through about a belt a year now. Because I always seem to end up with this crap you describe. Even if I try to avoid it. Guess I need to do a better job looking... Or just lose some weight so I can…

I didn’t appreciate how durable leather was until four years ago when I was recommended some quality men’s dress shoes on eBay. The shoes were $100, because they retail for $400-$500, but when I purchased them they were 10 years old and in good condition. I have since been wearing them quite regularly, and they still look as new as the day I got them. I used to spend $100 a year on typical men’s shoes, not realizing…

What brand of shoes did you get? I don't have any good dress shoes that don't feel cheap.

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#193

Post by antisthenes » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:28 AM UTC

radicalbyte wrote: post #168

antisthenes wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source for the 100kcal per 100 grams please. Even rabbit meat, the leanest possible game meat has 136 calories per 100 grams. https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/rabbit-mea... Average red meats will have calorie ranges right around 180-240 kcal per 100 grams. Of course that's low compared to sugary processed foods if you're going just by calories. But it certainly isn't lowest when you consider the enti…

My source? The packs the food comes in. Why? Bodybuilding. To build muscle without adding a lot of fat you need to know your protein. A quick google and here are some example numbers. Lean beef: https://www.eenvoudig-afvallen.nl/voedingswaarde/hoeveel-cal... Chicken breast: http://www.calorielijst.nl/product/?calorie=418 White fish like Cod and Haddock are similar only they contain less water. Maybe you don't have le…

Seems like your 2nd link is to Aldi.

I'll check it out next time I buy groceries.

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#194

Post by deelowe » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:44 AM UTC

Izkata wrote: post #188

deelowe wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"buy it for life", belt. Not buy it for, "life belt."

The list makes it really hard to read that way with parens. It parses like this to me: Definitely buy it for (life belts, wallets, etc).

Hah! That never occurred to me until you pointed it out.

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#195

Post by erikpukinskis » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 5:04 AM UTC

MandieD wrote: post #186

erikpukinskis wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems plausible, although it rules out almost all commercial meat. Since the feed will have gone through the same tillage. I certainly wouldn’t argue against anyone who is buying meat from someone like Joel Salatin. I wonder if there’s a word for this... “either stop eating beef or start paying a lot for it” diet?

Selective omnivorism? I actively avoid meat in the company cafeteria and at most restaurants, but buy grass-fed beef or a free-range chicken most weekends to cook, or packaged free-range chicken legs if I’m feeling a bit lazy. The price per pound is ridiculous (“why did you spend 15 bucks on a little chicken that looks like a damn mockingbird?”) to my dad, who eats a good half pound of meat every day. In the end, I p…

Way to be!

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#196

Post by tialaramex » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 9:35 AM UTC

jghn wrote: post #176

johnzim wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, I had forgotten about that stuff. A bunch of it was before my time and I only knew about it from other players' stories. Thank you for posting it! Even with so much of that removed, UO always had the feeling of a living breathing world more than almost any other game.

I've heard stories that the Star Wars MMO captured a lot of the same aspects, at least the positive ones. Not surprising considering Koster's influence on both. I never played it however, I was too hung up on the notion that anything short of a full on sandbox which allowed all the behaviors people were fleeing would be good enough for me. Took me a while to realize that the only people showing any interest in the ty…

Too late now but you might have enjoyed A Tale In The Desert, a very niche MMO where social dynamics were key. As an extreme example, the players could hold an election for Demi-Pharoah and the winner was entitled to ban one player from the game. Not a character, the player. Campaigns might claim they would just never use this power. On the other hand if someone is a total asshole (e.g. building penis shaped art in your farm and deliberately distracting people from group efforts like moving bits of pyramid) maybe a DP campaign could just promise to ban them.

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#197

Post by mensetmanusman » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 11:56 AM UTC

johntash wrote: post #192

mensetmanusman wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t appreciate how durable leather was until four years ago when I was recommended some quality men’s dress shoes on eBay. The shoes were $100, because they retail for $400-$500, but when I purchased them they were 10 years old and in good condition. I have since been wearing them quite regularly, and they still look as new as the day I got them. I used to spend $100 a year on typical men’s shoes, not realizing…

What brand of shoes did you get? I don't have any good dress shoes that don't feel cheap.

Allen Edmonds. You have to make sure to get your feet sized properly. I.e. after a not-cold day of work with a lot of standing/walking, use a Brannock device to find your #-letter combo, e.g. 10D. (This is the same advice for getting your proper ring size :))

The cork soles and the leather will slowly morph to your foot shape as you use them, so they get more comfortable as you use them. My most comfortable pair had its last manufacturing run in ~2005 (“lauderdale”).

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#198

Post by lowdose » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #143

xahrepap wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a really awesome leather belt that I got when I was 15. I stopped wearing it when I was 30 because my weight finally out outgrew the belt. Still have it. It's no worse today than it was when I got it as a teen. I go through about a belt a year now. Because I always seem to end up with this crap you describe. Even if I try to avoid it. Guess I need to do a better job looking... Or just lose some weight so I can…

I didn’t appreciate how durable leather was until four years ago when I was recommended some quality men’s dress shoes on eBay. The shoes were $100, because they retail for $400-$500, but when I purchased them they were 10 years old and in good condition. I have since been wearing them quite regularly, and they still look as new as the day I got them. I used to spend $100 a year on typical men’s shoes, not realizing…

Suitsupply also has a very nice shoe collection made from italian calf leather for a reasonable price.

Sneakers for $179 and dress shoes are priced at $249.

Like you said amazing quality shoes last for several years when given proper maintenance.

Business attire is also top notch from this brand competing with similar Brioni suits for a 1/3 of the price.

https://us.suitsupply.com/en_US/shoes

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#199

Post by mcv » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

rags2riches wrote: post #171

rs23296008n1 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or more wrinkly. Increased surface area compared to a sphere. It works on brain surface area. There's probably a tradeoff in the quality of the hide as a result of this however.

I imagine most uses call for flat leather rather than curved.

So you want to breed cube-shaped cows?

Re: America has no use for hides, so leather prices plunge

#200

Post by jjeaff » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

redis_mlc wrote: post #166

mistermann wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Canadians, based on our close proximity and depending on the specific logistics, might you guys be subsidising us as well?

qwsc was referring to the almost-free international postal rates for parcels that China received from USPS when it was a struggling exporter decades ago. As in, lower than domestic parcel rates inside the USA, typically in the range of $1 - $2. I believe Trump mentioned considering re-negotiating that deal recently, which nobody has objected to.

It's not a subsidy specific to China. It's an international agreement to charge certain international rates for postage. It applies only to packages under a certain size and weight.

But it probably should go away. It creates this weird imbalance where shipping things from China to the US can be cheaper than shipping something to your next door neighbor.

NPR's planet money had an informative and fun episode on the topic. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...