Hand tipping in process in Santa Croce, Italy.
As a brand committed to never using exotic skins, you may be wondering how croc texture fits into that. Black Croc starts as cowhide—and what happens to it from there is the work of skilled hands, custom tooling, and a three-step process that produces a texture no two skins share exactly.
Black Croc
01.
TANNING & EMBOSSING
The process starts with cowhide tanned to a base colour. Each skin is then individually embossed through a press using custom metal plates—selected from a library of over 3,000 patterns.
The tipping process is painted by hand in Santa Croce, Italy
02.
TIPPING
Once embossed, the skins go through tipping: a darker tint painted over the surface by hand to emphasise the texture and create depth. This is done entirely by the hand and eye of a skilled artisan.
Founder Jessie Wong, inspecting the quality at Samanta Tannery, Santa Croce
03.
FINISHING
A matte or gloss finish is applied to seal in the colour before the skins are hung to dry. Once they've passed thorough quality control testing, they're packaged and sent to our manufacturer in Dongguan, China—a Leather Working Group certified tannery, independently audited for environmental and traceability standards—to be made into Yu Mei leather goods.
OUR STANCE ON EXOTICS
Yu Mei is committed to never using down, feathers, angora, exotic skins, or furs in our ranges. Within New Zealand, the species of Red Deer we use holds a Non-CITES Declaration from New Zealand's Department of Conservation, Te Papa Atawhai.
