The Superior Labor | Unique Japanese Planner Goods | Brutally Honest Review Ep.6 

Thanks for your input! They don't zip as smoothly as the Riri zippers in my mind, and you are right I should have specified. The issue is also that I don't know if the Riri zippers have styles similar to this (from what I've seen they are less industrial looking), so it might also be a stylistic choice. I've had very very smooth zippers from TSL and not so smooth ones as well, so maybe it's less consistent compared to the Riri zippers. I have very limited experience with Riri, the more expensive ones, and all I've seen in reviews are people saying that they are the most expensive and best zippers people use, so I was going with that. Hope that makes sense :)

@@eberhartstudio3547 thank you for clarifying, that makes sense.

Haha, you'd be surprised to know that you are definitely the minority here. Most people would prefer to have "perfect" leather, especially for many other countries out there that they sell to. I can think of a few reasons why they do this: 1. marks, scars etc., sometimes affect the strength of the leather, and a lot of the times they are the weaker spots on the hide; 2. For a company that sells through many international retailers, the only way to ensure consistency to all countries and customers is to use the same, "perfect" leather for all of their products; 3. they sell the rejected pieces as scraps so they are not wasted. And by "scraps", I mean huge pieces that are upwards 4-5 sqft. Not like the scraps you can buy from another well known maker based in the US that are sometimes barely enough to make a coaster. When I bought the scraps from TSL, I was able to make many many leather covers from the pieces they sent me, and honestly probably some smaller purses if I wanted to. To me personally, I really like that I can get those leathers from them. It would be ideal if they can offer both kinds of products and offer a discount on the less "perfect" leather ones, since those marks are what makes a hide cheaper to buy to begin with. However, logistically that might just be too complicated to do, which I also understand.