General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Andrew Weissman: Manafort pardon can't restore 31 million in restitution [View all]jmowreader
(50,557 posts)The big attraction of the stuff is that an ostrich has these cool-looking places on its skin where the feathers come out of. The problem is it ain't easy to process an ostrich hide into leather without flattening them out, and the special tanning processes cost serious money.
Also, an ostrich is fairly small as far as leather-bearing animals go...it takes about four ostrich hides to equal one cowhide.
Ostrich leather is going to run you around $30 per square foot, if you buy a hundred hides at once. (One at a time, they're even worse.) If you're any good at all at buying leather you can get the very nicest grade of cowhide leather for about $7 per square foot.
Strange thing is, the vast majority of ostrich leather winds up as footwear, mostly cowboy boots. Some of it becomes purses...very little winds up as Manafort jackets, because it's expensive.