In the past few months we have dealt intensively with vegan leather, as sustainable raw materials are very important to us. In our search for a high-quality resource, we became aware of cactus leather, which convinced us from the very start because of its longevity.

It has been very important to us to take a step in this direction, because nowadays it seems as though the whole world is demanding vegan products. But is vegan always sustainable and environmentally friendly? While researching this new material, we noticed that although many suppliers advertise vegan products, we were able to find that some of these items still contain plastic on closer inspection. 

That was out of the question for us at MOCHIL because we were on the lookout for a virgin material that suits us and behind which we can stand 100 percent. We then came across two innovative young entrepreneurs from Guadalajara who manufacture leather from cacti.

The capital of the state of Jalisco in western Mexico is not only known for its Mariachi music, but also for its excellent Tequila. We could literally smell the #latinspirit in the air and so it didn’t take us long before we decided to work with this startup and support their idea.

The two take the raw material from the nopal cactus, which grows in abundance in Mexico. It needs very little water and is therefore extremely suitable as an environmentally conscious raw material. The first step is to cut the cactus leaves, then wash and mash them before drying and mixing them with non-toxic chemical substances. After that one has to shape the texture and color the leaves in the desired tone. The leather obtained in this way is very tough, needs neither plastics nor toxic chemicals and only very little water to produce.

Nopal Cactus

We still offer classic leather products because we think that the durability of this material is simply unique. However, we are also very interested in the sustainability of our products. We are constantly trying to develop ourselves in this field and therefore decided to include cactus leather as a raw material in our production.

Our first product, which was made entirely from vegan leather, is a modern shopper bag in which we have put a lot of work into. A capacious hand-made bag which is embroidered with the typical MOCHIL pattern of pearls that will draw a lot of attention to it. As you can see, in this area too, we are true to our motto: We want to grow together for good!