Why Animals No Longer Need to Die for Our Leather Shoes

Nutley, New Jersey’s Modern Meadow thinks it has found a way to bring leather fashion to the masses with literally no skin off of an animal’s back.

There is no animal in this leather’s recipe mix, yet it’s also not a synthetic variation, either.

Instead, Modern Meadow has spent five years of research and development in a lab, developing a product that contains real collagen – a key ingredient in animal skin.

Under the brand name Zoa, Modern Meadow is using genetically engineered yeast to to show off the possibilities for what could become a viable alternative to animal leather.

All of this after the company made the switch from engineering human tissue for medical research to applying the same basic principles to garments and footwear.