Corinthian is a type of leather, but nothing about this is extraordinary. The Chrysler Automobile Corporation presented it in 1974 and used it as a marketing tool, and they advertised it in such an ingenious way that it became popular among all noticeable car companies.

Corinthian leather demand increased due to it being famous, and thus it became expensive. Even though this leather goes through multifaceted procedures, it still doesn’t justify the cost as it is an average leather priced more than its worth.

Is Corinthian Leather Real?

Certainly, Corinthian Leather is real leather despite it not having distinctive features. Some believe that Corinthian leather is made in Corinth. But in reality, Corinth has no relation to it whatsoever. It’s authenticity depends on the product that is made from it and the tanning process it goes through.

Where Was Corinthian Leather Made?

There is a misconception regarding Corinthian Leather that it is imported from an exotic location. Corinthian Leather was made by the Radel Leather Manufacturing Company in Newark, New Jersey. Fiat Chrysler Automobile Company sourced all of its vehicle’s leather from them in 1974. Now because a wide variety of brands use the Corinthian leather name so it's being made in other parts of the world as well.

Why Is Called Corinthian?

Corinthian leather is a term created by the marketing agency known as Bozell. They intended to make it sound like a first-class product, rich in quality, rare, and very luxurious. They aimed to stimulate a feeling of extravagance. The term has no actual meaning, nor is there anything extraordinary about the product.

What Is So Special About Corinthian Leather?

People pay extra for the Corinthian Leather car seats just because of advertising strategies, not because Corinthian Leather is something astonishing.

In 1975 Chrysler introduced the Cordoba at a time when buyers had money and cars were huge. Chrysler needed to find a means to rationalize why their automobile prices were higher, which was problematic, as the car could have been better than other companies vehicles. What Chrysler did was pure genius; rather than doing anything useful and enhancing the quality of their cars, Chrysler started calling standard leather "Corinthian Leather."

How Corinthian Leather Became Popular?

Corinthian Leather became the trademark leather for Chrysler’s cars. Their main objective was to set the leather apart from other car companies by suggesting that those cars are not associated with rich, rare quality leather. But this wasn’t the case before. For instance, in the 1970s, Chrysler (a Car Company) was at a downfall because they were making inefficient cars and selling them during the price inflation of gas.

Then Chrysler strategically launched the new Cordoba automobile and appointed famous Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban as their spokesman. He was a Spanish actor with a smooth, majestic voice, so when he talked, he made Corinthian Leather sound like a luxury brand for cars; thus, Corinthian Leather got its fame. In the first commercial from 1975, he mentions it as “soft.” Then later, in 1975, he referred to it as “fine.” He was their spokesperson for 15 years because Corinthian Leather got so much popularity from those commercials. Chrysler paid Ricardo Montalban a considerable amount of money to promote the "Corinthian Leather." In 1987, when Montalban came on “Late Night with David Letterman,” he even admitted that the term “Corinthian” had no meaning. It is just a made-up word used for advertising.

When Iacocca established an entirely new product line for the company, he kept the old branding strategy, which was to use the same Corinthian Leather, adding more history to the Chrysler products. For the modernized products line, this worked so well that every other car enterprise began to copy it from Chrysler, and 30 years later, Mercedes is having success in charging thousands of dollars for using Corinthian Leather even though it is just regular leather. Corinthian Leather has a smooth finish; it is ordinarily colored. But because it was marketed so well, it got to be one of the most popular leather in the car industry.

Almost every company uses these similar branding techniques these days. For high-end interior treatments, Mercedes has its "Designio" luxury brand. For trucks, Ford sold Rolls Royce consisting of the 'King Ranch' trim, which despite not needing any extra badging on any of its cars, used the 'Black Badge' difference on them where they charge way more money for a lot less chrome.

Rich Corinthian Leather is just standard leather. Corinthian Leather is just a sneaky advertised term created to help the Chrysler automobile company sell mediocre vehicles as “rich luxury cars” so that they can make more money with less cost.