What is Sheepskin?

Pure and Simple
Sheepskin: the "Natural" Choice. For centuries, sheep farmers and country folk have known that no natural or man-made fiber possesses the virtues of 100% sheepskin. The unique combination of leather skin on one side and wool fur on the other lends it remarkable properties.

Cool in Summer and Warm in the Winter
Sheepskin wool is soft and resilient. Its fibers breathe, acting like a natural thermostat for your body. These hollow fibers can absorb up to 30% of their own weight in moisture without feeling wet, keeping you perfectly dry regardless of the weather. The free flow of air between you and the sheepskin fibers is a comforting change from the clamminess of leather and vinyl.

The Wonders of Wool
Ounce for ounce, sheepskin is stronger than steel. Your sheepskin items will last for years with minimal care: most often, only brushing, shaking out, or vacuuming is required. Impossible to copy synthetically, sheepskin and its wool fibers offer an astounding list of natural qualities.

Sheepskin...

• wool does not shed, because it's attached to the skin. It isn't woven and then brushed up, like wool pile fabric that is loose enough to be pulled out or worn off. Sheepskin wool is embedded into the leather.
• resists snags, tears, wrinkles, soiling and pilling.
• drapes beautifully; never sags and retains shape.
• is static-free.
• is flame resistant.
• is wind-proof.
• stays warm even when wet.
• is a natural moisturizer due to the high content of lanolin in the wool.
• is water resistant. The seeded skin side is naturally water resistant. We recommend spraying the leather side of the skin with our Cloud Nine Sheepskin Water Repellent & Stain Guard.

Sheepskin is Washable
Most sheepskin products can be gently hand- or machine-washed. We recommend using our special Sheepskin Shampoo with added lanolin for all your washable sheepskin. Please view our How To Care for Sheepskin page for more complete information on this topic.

Sheepskin is Organic
Sheepskin is a pure organic product, unlike any other fiber in the world. Sheepskin will return, in time, to its constituent elements.

Sheepskin is a Recycled Byproduct
A sheepskin pelt is only one of many byproducts of the sheep farming industry. This byproduct of the food and wool industry is tanned and used in many wonderful ways rather than being discarded. At the end of a sheep's life, nothing is wasted. The whole animal is used, including bones and hooves. Sheepskin, like wood, is one of the few raw materials that nature will never exhaust. Its value as both a food source and a production material is therefore both aesthetic and ecological. Some of the other common products made from sheep and used in our daily lives include:

• Medicines
• Creams and lotions
• Chewing gum
• Shampoo
• Candles
• Piano keys
• Wallpaper and wallpaper paste
• Instrument strings
• Paint
• Crayons
• Buttons

Please note that the sheep that make our products come primarily from herds raised for their food value rather than their hides. Sheepskin is a recycled byproduct and no endangered species skins are used in our products.

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What Kind of Sheepskin Do We Use?
We use only the finest premium grade sheepskin pelts, selected for their density, strength, and quality. Almost all the sheepskins used in our production are from Australia. The hides are tanned with the best technology available and tend to come from Merino and Romney sheepskin from Australia. The hides are either tanned at the source or in other premier factories in the country of production. Sheepskin is a world commodity and is shipped worldwide.

These sheep breeds provide the best hides for our products for many reasons. The leather side tends to be thicker and more durable, and the wool itself is very dense and retains its shape. It's the perfect material for the manufacturing of quality sheepskin products, which must endure a lot of wear and tear, yet keep its shape and look good.




Our products, including our beautiful long wool rugs, slippers, seat covers, and auto accessories benefit from these superior materials. For example, we use Australian hides to make our Sunrise Slippers, which have a wool length of 18 mm, about 17% longer than comparable styles of sheepskin slippers. This extra wool length gives you more cushion and comfort in our footwear. You can really feel the difference.

Sheepskin.com's Luxury Superfit and Premium Semi-custom seat covers average a wool length of 22 mm. The typical comparable seat cover on the market is usually much shorter wool, on average about 16 mm. Therefore, our seat covers can be up to 27% thicker than comparable covers. That superior thickness adds a lot to their longevity and the feel of luxury in your car.

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How Are Our Sheepskins Tanned?

Raw Skins
The raw sheep hides are first purchased by the tannery from a raw skin dealer or meat packing house. Then they are graded, salted, packed by the raw skin dealer and then shipped to one of our premier tanneries around the world.



Washing
The hides are unpacked at the tannery and then trimmed and graded for size and quality. The initial skin grading determines what kind of production the skins will be suitable for. These grading steps are critical in matching the right material with the correct production for the finished goods yet to be made. Next they are washed several times to clean and prepare them for tanning.



Tanning
Next, the skins are chrome-tanned, a process that ensures good durability of both the wool fiber and leather backing. This process preserves the hide and allows our finished products to be washed with minimal shrinkage. Our medical skins are tanned with BASF Relugan. This patented solution provides tanning that stands up well to washing (it's a top choice for lambskin used in hospitals) and dyes wool and leather slightly yellow.

Degreasing
The next step is to degrease the skins by washing and dry-cleaning them to remove the fat liquor content from the hides. This important step in the tanning process removes unwanted odors in the finished hide and insures that the skin will remain soft and silky.



Dye
At this point, the skins are dyed to our color specs and dried to perfection before moving on the final finishing step. All our factories use only top quality German BSF dye or American Lowenstein hot water dyes. These hot water dyes are famous for being permanent, stable dyes that won't rub off or wash out of the finished product.

Finishing
Finally, the skin side is buffed smooth and the wool side is trimmed, brushed, and ironed to a silky finish using the best technology available. The skins are now ready to be cut and sewn to create the beautiful sheepskin products you see on this site.



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