Leather Italia USA / Campbell Leather

Hi, my name is Randall. I found this forum while researching sofa brands online.

Back in november, my wife and I purchased a leather sofa made by Leather Italia USA/Campbell leather from a local dealer. We tried to research this brand online but could find nothing on it. The dealer we bought it from told us that it was good quality. Now the finish is wearing off the leather rapidly. The leather on the seats looks like it is shredding up. It is so thin compared to our chairs. It has tiny marks all over it. All of the friction areas around the seams it is wearing off, and the worst part is that a big area is wearing off where our heads touch the top back cushion.

I brought this to the attention of the dealer and he contacted the company. The company refuses to warrant the leather saying that it is "hair stuff" that is causing the finish to wear off. The local store has offered to replace it on their dime with either another one of the same or a Lane sofa.

We currently have 2 Lane leather chairs and my "hair stuff" (pomade) has not affected them at all in 2 years of use.

We don't want another leather italia piece because it is obviously poor quality so we are stuck ordering something from Lane.

I understand that Lane is not the best but at least their sofas and chairs are still assembled in the US. Since finding out about H&M and some of the other fine brands we would love to have one of those or at least a flexsteel but I'm afraid we are stuck with Lane at this point.

Have you ever seen this issue with leather and what should we do? Anyone have experience with Lane sofas?

November? That's all? As in November 2009?

Sounds to me like the topcoat is not adhering to the hide and is disintegrating. I've seen that happen on a few Chinese leather hides of poor quality, but its rare. Even then, its usually about a year before it occurs. Good on your local selling dealer for offering to replace it - that's the right thing to do. Bad news on Leather Italia/Campbell it sounds like.

What other brands does your selling dealer carry? Would you be willing to pay the difference to upgrade into a better unit?

Yes, Nov. 09.

They carry Leather Italia, Lane and Ashley and I think that is all. It is a small town store. I'm not touching Ashley stuff. We are willing to upgrade but I don't think they deal with anything of better quality. The only reason we went with this Leather Italia stuff is because they really talked it up as being good. It is leather all over, not leather match and I think that is a big selling point they use.

At this point I wish we could cancel it all and start over with some better stuff. I won't say price isn't a factor because it always is, but I am looking for quality first. This sofa cost about $1200 but I would gladly spend twice as much for a quality piece if I could find it. The problem is that we are in a small town and most stores here carry the standard Lane/LaZBoy and the Ashley stuff is EVERYWHERE!

We looked at a Flexsteel Latitudes sofa yesterday for comparison and even though it is a chinese unit it felt like much better quality than what we have.

I thought about seeing if the store would cancel out the sofa deal and give us store credit so we can order a Lane entertainment center and look elsewhere for seating.

Well, according to this webpage (http://www.greatpricedfurniture.com/...talia-usa.html), Leather Italia USA uses top grain, fully aniline-dyed leather. While I would still doubt the quality of the leather based upon friction causing it to "peel off," the fact that you're seeing effects on the head cushions may very well be caused by your hair product. Unprotected/fully-aniline leathers can and will absorb oils associated with your body, whereas protected/finished leathers will have some protection from these effects due to the top coating they have added to them.

Getting store credit and going elsewhere for sofas will probably be your best bet. When you do shop for your next sofa to be used in the family room, getting a high quality protected leather should be on your list of things to look for. Remember that not all finished leathers are good quality so you should sample the swatches yourself to see whether or not the leather quality is up to your standard prior to ordering your next sofa.

Oh, here's a webpage I found that ranks several sofa manufacturers (http://www.leathershoppes.com/manufacturer_rank.html). I believe that the list is fairly accurate, but certainly skewed towards the brands that specific store sells. (edited in)

Good luck!

I think it's a quality issue more than anything. It really is rubbing off everywhere, even where our legs touch the side of the armrests while sitting.

I think I'd opt for the store credit against the Lane Entertainment Center and then go elsewhere for your leather sofa, if they will agree to that. Chances are they will work out a deal with their supplier to return that sofa to them, small dealers are not going to put that out in the trash of donate it. That's a really nice gesture on their part if they will do that for you, be sure to speak well of them to your neighbors, etc. if they agree.

I can't imagine how bad this must be if the Flexsteel Lattitudes looked like a substantial improvement! $ 1,200 doesn't buy you much quality in terms of a new leather sofa, I'm afraid. $ 2K and up is when you get good stuff.

An article from a couple of years ago:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leather Italia USA

Campbell, whose prior furniture experience included time with a hide supplier, a furniture retailer and high-end upholstery maker Classic Leather, launched his company as Campbell Sales Group in 1995 with two Italian frames.

* * *

Initially, Campbell sourced his product from Italy, and the name of the company was changed to Leather Italia U.S.A. in 2001. But soon after, rising costs and currency pressures led the company to move the sourcing for its Italian designs to China.

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Their corporate website is "under construction". According to this site, they appear to use large Chinese manufacturers for their furniture pieces - the identified manufacturer is Haining Oyi May Sofa Co., Ltd. - a huge manufacturing facility serving many brands. The tag on the bottom of the furniture may identify the company that manufactured the sofa for Leather Italia.

if anyone is looking at leather and their store will give you a sample, take it home....smear olive oil on it, crayon, ink pen etc and leave overnight. I have had "finished leather "clean up nicely but the aniline very soft leather often soils the worst!

I almost buy a sofa set made by Leather Italia USA from Costco online. The sample looks fine to me. But the price is too cheap to belivev that they will have quality leather to put on, so finally I opt for H&M.

Leather Italia is apparently a proponent of "bonded leather", so be careful about what you're buying.

I have decided to go to every forum I can find to talk about Italia Leather. We purchased an entire set of their furniture: sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman, when awell-known local store was closing down. Within a year, the dye had rubbed off on the seats, arms, backs; anyplace we touched. Dye also rubbed off onto my walls and onto any cloth used to wipe the furniture. After weeks and weeks of email and phone calls to both the company who sold us the furniture and Italia, we got results. Italia acted surprised and blamed the problem on a bad batch of Chinese-made furniture. They agreed to replace our set if WE would pay the $500 shipping. The company who sold us the furniture was unhappy that we had such a bad experience and agreed to pay the shipping. So we got a new set of furniture BUT Italia made it clear, there was no warranty on the replacements. Thinking new furniture was better thanugly furniture, we agreed to accept a replacement set. Of course, within just a few months, the dye started coming off again. We now have a living room full of the ugliest two-tone brown and GOLD furniture you can imagine. It makes me want to weep everytime I go in a public place and see a brown leather sofa that is obviously well used but still brown. As I told Italia in my last email to them, they should be ashamed to sell such an inferior product. Of course, they didn't answer or even acknowledge that email. What a horrible firm they are. Stuck with their nasty product, we are going to try to fix the furniture by restoring it and dying it ourselves. Wish us luck!