Uninformed people ask me, "Why are your sheepskin slippers so expensive compared to theirs?" and I tell them, "You're asking the wrong question. You should ask, 'Why are theirs so cheap?'"
Prepare to become an informed expert so you stop wasting so much money on low quality sheepskin slippers for the rest of your life.
I am exposing all of the low quality, corner cutting and deceptive tricks they play to manufacture, market and sell their low quality sheepskin slippers for so cheap compared to our straightforward old fashioned high quality ways. If it is not a good deal for the buyer, the seller, the makers and for our planet, then it's not a good deal for anyone. Sadly, they only want it to be a good deal for themselves.
Sheepskin is the generic term for the wool fibers from a sheep. When the wool is still naturally attached to the sheep's skin, that is called Shearling. When it's been shaved off of the skin, it's just called Sheepskin.
We exclusively use the highest grade of Merino shearling because of its density, softness and durability. 100% of our sheepskin is this with no faux anywhere on the slipper.
- Benefit 1: Naturally thermostatic - wool fibers adjust to body temperature and regulates for all year wear.
- Benefit 2: The sheep's skin absorbs moisture and helps it pass through to the other side.
- Benefit 3: The skin of the sheep slowly indents to the form of your feet for more comfort.
- Benefit 4: All leather is antibacterial so it is hard for it to ever stink.
- Benefit 5: Sheepskin is hypoallergenic for no contact allergies or rashes.
- Benefit 6: Skin of sheep breathes and so wicks moisture away from the skin.
- Benefit 7: The wool fibers stay attached far longer.
It's much cheaper to shear sheep or shave the shearling manufacturing scraps and then make a low quality wool carpet by gluing the wool to a synthetic pad.
- Problem 1: It is not as durable.
- Problem 2: The synthetic pads reflect moisture and body heat and make the feet hot and sweaty.
- Problem 3: Bacteria is what stinks because it grows on those synthetic pads.
They put a little sheepskin where you can see it and then stick faux fake polyester sheepskin where the sun don't shine, on the inside of the slipper. They can now technically say, "Made WITH high quality sheepskin". To test if it is sheepskin or not, pull off a few fibers and burn them. If they ball up then they are synthetic. If they turn to ash then they are real genuine sheepskin slippers. Did you know that leather seats in most fancy cars are only 35% leather and 65% vinyl?
They try to give the faux sheepskin some luxurious name, but it's just a way to save almost 100% on their sheepskin costs.
- Problem 1: Stinky from the bacteria growth. Not antibacterial.
- Problem 2: Contact allergies and skin conditions arise from contact to many chemical compounds like this. Not hypoallergenic.
- Problem 3: Try putting your foot in a plastic bag versus putting it in a linen bag. The more synthetic, the more sweat. The more sweat, the more bacteria. The more bacteria, the more stink.
- Problem 4: Falls apart sooner than shearling.
- Problem 5: Does not insulate very well.
NOTE: A decent quality natural sheepskin slipper is when they take the shearling hide that still has the hair on it and turn it inside out so the suedy inside of the hide is facing out and the wool is against the skin. This isn't a bad thing, but the skin is very absorbent and stains and looks bad quickly.
Our upper is 100% full grain leather, which is the holy grail of leather grades. It still has the full amount of the leather's tight grain fibers on top. It is the toughest leather you can buy.
- Benefit 1: Very insulative against cold AND heat
- Benefit 2: Doesn't stain easily
- Benefit 3: Easy to clean
- Benefit 4: Doesn't stretch much
- Benefit 5: Long lasting
- Benefit 6: Biodegradable
- Benefit 7: Breathable
- Benefit 8: Antibacterial
- Benefit 9: Gets better looking with age
Genuine is the technical name for weak suede or split leather that has been mechanically separated from the strong and tight fibered full grain top half of the hide. It is so cheap because it is the most stain absorbing, hard to clean weakest part of the leather and so stretches out a lot over time.
- Problem 1: Stains quickly
- Problem 2: Hard to clean
- Problem 3: Gets ugly in a hurry
- Problem 4: Falls apart quickly
- Problem 5: Stretches out of shape
As long as one square inch of leather is full grain, then technically it was made "WITH" full grain leather while the rest of the sheepskin slipper is made with a crap look-a-like synthetic or genuine leather.
It is a sheet of vinyl polyurethane coated with a thin layer of some sort of plasticized natural coating. Sometimes it is a faux suede called microfiber.
- Problem 1: Peels and gets ugly in a hurry
- Problem 2: Takes 200 years of leaching chemicals into the water table for it to decompose
- Problem 3: Falls apart quickly
- Problem 4: Causes feet to sweat
The 4 types of soles used on sheepskin slippers, with supplier's cost. Saddleback Leather uses long lasting and classic solid leather soles for our sheepskin slippers.
- $0.75 EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) - Lightweight and squooshy dense foam - Think Crocs
- $4 TPU (Thermoplastic PolyUrethane) - Dense plastic squeaky soles used on most sneakers
- $6 Natural Rubber - Clean and healthy sheet of natural rubber
- $12 Solid Sole Leather - Same sole used on all high quality expensive shoes and boots in the world and on our Italian made shoes and boots
We only use 100% natural thick leather.
- Benefit 1 - A Versatile Indoor/Outdoor Sole: Vegetable tanned leather soles are used on 100% of all high end boots and shoes today.
- Benefit 2 - A Great Insulating Sole: A solid leather sole is a great insulator against the cold or heat of stone, tile, asphalt, concrete or wood floors to maintain your foot temperature.
- Benefit 3 - A Relaxing Sole: You're not playing racquetball, you're relaxing at home. So you want enough grip for safety, but not so much that you can't casually shuffle, slide and spin your feet without exerting that little extra bit of energy to constantly raise grippy soles off the ground to move.
- Benefit 4 - A Comfortable Sole: If the sole is too rigid and doesn't give when you squat down, then the upper will stretch. If it is too soft and floppy, then it won't last as long. Solid vegetable tanned leather is my favorite sole because it softens, flexes, forms to your heel and toe imprints and lasts for years.
- Problem 1 - Leaches Chemicals Into the Body: The sole of the foot is the gateway to the body and TPU (Thermoplastic PolyUrethane) and EVA foam soles (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) are lightweight and comfy, but are made of toxic hormone blocking phthalates, plasticizers, artificial dyes and colorants that can be contaminated with lead. All of these chemicals get hot and steamy on the feet and can absorb straight into the bloodstream just like essential oils do.
- Problem 2 - Weakens and Misaligns the Body: Weakens feet and ankles in two ways that put the knees, hips and back out of alignment and cause painful damage.
- Creates Arch Support that Weakens the Arch: Imagine your foot in a cast for a year. It would get weak and skinny because of not moving. That happens when foam soles eventually compress everywhere but under the arch. That creates arch support, which everybody knows is death to the body. The arch can no longer exercise by extending and contracting with each step and so gets weak.
- Redistributes the Heavy Lifting to Weak Areas: Squooshy padding almost evenly distributes the hard work of supporting and balancing the body from the strong areas of the foot, that God designed to support about 80% of the weight, to the weaker areas of the foot that weren't designed to do that hard work.
The shape of the slipper is so important for your body. Our sheepskin slippers, shoes and boots are expensively formed around the natural anatomical shape of the foot so your feet move like they do when you are barefoot instead of shaping the slipper so the foot has to form to that easy to make shape. We follow Dr. Edward Lyman Munson's biomechanical principles for foot health, upon which hundreds of millions of military boots were made on. The entire barefoot and minimalist movement has been designed this way too.
- Benefit 1: A straight inner line so the big toe doesn't bend in toward the second toe. Corrects bunions
- Benefit 2: A wide toe box so the toes can spread out which corrects bunions
- Benefit 3: ABSOLUTELY no arch support so the arch can exercise and strengthen
- Benefit 4: A minimal heel for achilles tendon health
- Problem 1: Poorly shaped shoes and slippers are faster to manufacture (time is money) because the machine that forms the upper requires a symmetrical rounded toe that bends in the great toe and pinky toe out of straight alignment with the foot bones and weakens the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the arch. This is the root cause of most bunions, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, hamstring pulls, shin splints, knee, hip and back pain.
- Problem 2: A wider toe box is key to letting the toes spread out like they do naturally, but that makes the slipper use more raw material and that takes away more profit on one million pairs.
- Benefit 1: Our employees. Saddleback Leather has a fully English K-12 school by our factory and we offer parenting, marriage, Bible and financial classes, along with counseling for our employees. Would we spend our own profit on our people if we loved money as much as they do?
- Benefit 2: You are proud. When you wear our slippers, they make you feel proud.
When you don't have to pay much for labor, you get more money in your pocket.
- Problem 1 - Forced Labor: Labor costs are VERY low in certain countries because they pay normal wages to some workers and the government sends slaves to the factory through their "Re-Education" program to make their prices too good to pass up for money hungry fashion brands. You laugh, but they have an estimated 9 million slaves and India has an estimated 18 million slaves. If you say you're against slavery, then start buying high quality and stop buying products made in the countries who use slaves. They may not be fully slave made, but slaves are usually somewhere in the supply chain.
- Problem 2 - They Can't Be Trusted: They love money and power more than people. That's why they'll hurt others. That's why they can't be trusted.
Nylon deteriorates fairly quickly and is only half the price of Saddleback's industrial strength Polyester thread for a reason.
We could wholesale our sheepskin slippers to stores and let the store sell them to you, but at our high cost of materials, the price would be too high. So, we would have to lower our costs, which would mean we would have to lower the quality in order to sell so many. But we would sell WAY WAY more and make a killing. But we choose to keep our quality excessively high and sell fewer. It doesn't make business sense but it makes you and me happy. And happiness is why we are in business.
- Materials = All leather, lining, sheepskin, thread, glue.
- Direct Labor = Everyone at the factory who physically touches and makes the product.
- Overhead = Indirect Labor + Monthly Expenses
- Indirect Labor = Everyone in the business who does not physically touch or make the product. Managers, engineers, designers, maintenance, cleaning etc.
- Monthly Expenses = Everything to run the business like rent, electricity, printer paper, water, insurance, maintenance etc.
General rule of thumb for pricing. Everyone doubles their cost/price (Keystone Pricing). We wholesale sheepskin slippers one pair at a time.
Factory makes it for $15 and sells to the designer for $20 ($6 materials, $10 labor and overhead, $4 profit). Designer wholesales to stores for $40. Stores sell millions to consumers for $79.
Factory makes it for $30 and sells it to the designer for $40 ($10 of materials, $20 labor and overhead, $10 of profit). Designer wholesales it to stores for $80 and stores sell tens of thousands to consumers for $160.
Factory makes it for $72 ($40 material, $20 labor and overhead, $12 profit) Saddleback Leather sells hundreds direct to the consumer for $149. If we wholesaled our sheepskin slippers to stores, we would sell more volume, but they would need to sell them at $380 or we would need to somehow lower the quality of materials and cost of labor.
