MINI To Make All Future Cars Leather-Free

Feb 4

“We don’t need leather any more in the future”, MINI’s Head of Design announced, as the iconic car company upgrades to inventive, recycled materials like cork for its future interiors.

The iconic car manufacturer MINI has revealed its plans to make all future models leather-free.

Currently, car interiors can often use animal leather to line the seats, steering wheel, and even the gear stick.

But with increased awareness of the cattle industry’s devastating environmental footprint, many leading designers and manufacturers are replacing leather products with cutting-edge materials and recycled fabrics.

“We don’t need leather any more in the future, because we don’t believe it’s sustainable," MINI’s Head of Design, Oliver Heilmer, told Autocar. "We're totally convinced that we will have modern and high-value products without leather.”

As part of the sustainability push, MINI is committing to more recycled fabrics, with its production seats already now made from 100% recycled fabrics. And future-fabrics like cork leather - a leather-like fabric made from recycled cork - have already been used by the brand in their radical Urbanaut line.

MINI joins other leading car manufacturers who are making more and more of their cars leather-free. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla are among those who offer leather-free car interiors.

And it’s not just the car industry ditching leather - the fashion world is embracing future-fabrics too. Adidas, Lululemon, Stella McCartney, and Kering recently launched a game-changing consortium to fast-track mushroom leather into stores by 2021.

With more than a billion cows, pigs, goats, sheep, alligators, ostriches, kangaroos, and even dogs and cats cruelly slaughtered for their skins every year, a future free from animal-leather cannot arrive soon enough.

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