Mushroom-Made Leather, the New and Sustainable Way to Look Cool

A new study published in Nature Sustainability shows that fungal leather is a good alternative to cow skin and plastic leather in terms of versatility and ethical and environmental sustainability.

“You’re getting a biological organism to do all of your manufacturing for you, so there’s no real energy requirement,” says Mitchell Jones, lead author of the study and materials scientist from the Vienna University of Technology. “Once you’ve got this material, you can process it according to quite simple chemical treatments compared to what you would normally do for leather tanning.”

The material is made from a mat of mycelium, the underlying root network from which the mushrooms sprung out. It grows in a matter of weeks in any organic material, doesn’t require light, is tough and water-resistant. “With leather, you’re limited to the skin that an animal produces over its life, whereas mycelial mats can be grown to specifications,” said Sophia Wang, co-founder of MycoWorks, a company that has started manufacturing and selling fungal leather products.