Luxury handbags may not always justify their high price tags, according to leather expert Volkan Yilmaz, who recently shared his insights on the The Business of Fashion Podcast hosted by Imran Amed.
Known online as Tanner Leatherstein, Yilmaz has built a following of over 2 million by dissecting luxury bags to evaluate their true material and construction quality. His analysis reveals that consumers often pay more for brand prestige than for craftsmanship.
Yilmaz’s expertise comes from his early experience working in his family’s tannery in Turkey, where he learned leather processing from a young age. Today, he applies a hands-on testing approach—using acetone, flame, and scratch tests—to assess leather authenticity and hardware quality.
According to him, luxury handbags can carry markups of 15 to 20 times their production cost. While he acknowledges that status plays a legitimate role in luxury purchases, he argues that high prices should still guarantee premium materials and workmanship.
His findings suggest that this is not always the case, raising concerns about transparency in the luxury market.
Yilmaz also noted a shift in consumer expectations, with emerging brands offering high-quality leather goods at significantly lower price points. He believes this trend will push traditional luxury brands to evolve beyond logo-driven value and focus more on quality and authenticity.
