What is cork

Cork is a natural product made from bark harvested from the cork oak tree.

This has traditionally been done by hand and to this day, no mechanical tools or artificial means are used. The process has to be repeated every 9 to 12 years: in fact, if the bark is not removed from the cork oak tree, it will die. All this makes cork an entirely natural and extremely ecological material as both its provenance and production are fully eco-friendly.

Cork is a super material!

Cork is so perfect and rich that no industrial or technological processes have yet been able to replicate it. Cork is used for a wide range of diverse purposes, such as in buildings and automobiles, by the military and space industries, in footwear and now also to produce green leather goods.

Cork is recurrently acclaimed as the replacement of leather: the “New Leather” or “Green Leather”.

Here are some of the properties of cork:

Most of the cork products in the world come from Portugal.

Located in the south-western part of Europe, Portugal is the premier producer of cork in the world, accounting for about 50% of the world’s total cork trees. Therefore, the Portuguese cork industry is highly developed; the versatility of cork as a substance together with its ecological properties and the ability to recycle the material has facilitated its growth. As the growth of cork oak trees is greatly influenced by environmental factors, the Portuguese were the first in the world to introduce suitable norms related to the conservation and preservation of their cork oak trees.