When shopping, is there a reliable way of distinguishing leather shoes?
Q Recently I was looking for a pair of shoes and upon going into a store and finding a pair that I really liked asked the assistant whether or not they were leather. She said they weren’t, because they didn’t smell like leather. Is this a reliable way of distinguishing leather products? A No, this is not an effective way to determine whether they are made of leather. Some shoes made from leather smell like leather and some don’t. The materials used in the manufacture of the shoes should be written inside – e.g. ‘Leather upper, non-leather sole.’ If this info isn’t written in the shoe, and there is no other way of knowing what they are made of, I personally wouldn’t buy them.