Microfiber Basics（1）|The Birth of Microfiber：From Imitating to Surpassing Genuine Leather

—— Decoding the Core Technologies of WaterForce and WaterOnly

Foreword

For downstream brands engaged in product selection, microfiber is a frequently mentioned term. Often hailed as the best alternative to genuine leather, it boasts more stable performance and greater environmental advantages than real leather.
Starting with the basics, we will unlock the birth and evolution of microfiber, and trace its journey from an imitator to a surpassing innovator.

1. What is Microfiber?

Microfiber, fully known as Microfiber Synthetic Leather, is a three-dimensional structured material with microfiber as the framework and PU (polyurethane) as the filler.It is a new-type material that resembles and even outperforms genuine leather in texture and hand feel, widely used in footwear, apparel, luggage, furniture, automotive interiors and other fields.

2. The Birth of Microfiber

Before the emergence of microfiber, the synthetic leather market was dominated by ordinary PU leather and PVC leather. These materials were either stiff, poorly breathable, or insufficiently durable, and could never match the texture and performance of genuine leather.
In the 1970s, Japan’s Toray Industries pioneered the invention of microfiber material, breaking the deadlock completely. It realized the breakthrough of imitating the structure of genuine leather for the first time, moving synthetic leather from superficial similarity to intrinsic resemblance. This officially kicked off the revolution of the synthetic leather industry and laid the foundation for subsequent technological upgrades.

3. Classification of Microfiber

Microfiber is classified based on fibrillation methods, mainly into three categories:

● Toluene-based microfiber: Produced by toluene fibrillation. It is an early mainstream solvent-based microfiber with mature technology, but it emits organic solvents.

● Alkaline microfiber: Produced by alkaline fibrillation. Also a solvent-based microfiber with similar performance to toluene-based microfiber, yet with environmental limitations.

● Water-force microfiber: Produced by water-force fibrillation. As a new-generation eco-friendly microfiber, it is the mainstream direction and the most challenging process path in the current industry.

4. The Evolution Path of Microfiber Technology

The evolution of microfiber is essentially a dual upgrade of environmental friendliness and performance, as well as continuous iteration of functionality and simulation.

Ordinary PVC / PU Leather

The most basic synthetic leather without a microfiber framework, featuring poor hand feel, durability and breathability.

Solvent-based microfiber (Toluene / Alkaline)

With a microfiber framework added, it greatly improves texture and durability to be close to genuine leather, but relies on organic solvents and lacks environmental friendliness.

Water-force microfiber (Water fibrillation + Water-force impregnation)

Using water as a medium instead of organic solvents, it retains the excellent performance of solvent-based microfiber while solving environmental pain points, achieving the breakthrough of high performance + low pollution.The shift from toluene to water-force processes is driven not only by environmental protection, but also by improved functionality and advanced simulation technology.

5. Core Advantages of Water-force Microfiber

As the ultimate form of microfiber evolution, water-force microfiber uses water instead of traditional organic solvents. It not only reduces VOC emissions at the source, but also cuts carbon emissions by more than 50% compared with toluene-based microfiber.It is free of toluene, formaldehyde and DMF, better complying with current environmental regulations and consumers’ demand for health and safety.

In addition, high-quality water-force microfiber is fully comparable to solvent-based microfiber in mechanical properties, abrasion resistance and hand feel, and even has advantages in functional scalability.

6. Extraordinary Leather, Powered by Water

Despite its remarkable advantages, water-force microfiber was difficult to mass-produce in the early stage due to unstable processes and high costs.
The emergence of WaterForce and WaterOnly technologies has paved the way for mass production and industrial application of water-force microfiber, enabling more downstream brands to use high-quality water-force microfiber materials conveniently and cost-effectively.

7. Summary

The evolution of microfiber is a journey from imitating genuine leather to surpassing genuine leather, and an upgrade from pursuing performance to balancing performance and environmental protection.

In the next issue, we will further analyze the performance and application scenarios of microfiber to help you select and apply microfiber more accurately.