The leather is painted. When the color wears off you see the underlying color. I have two that are black where the color has worn off. Same technique as the leather iPhone cases starting with the iPhone 12 I believe.
Strictly speaking, if you can rub the colour off leather like this, it is not dyed, but coated; dye chemically bonds to the material. You may not want to call it paint, but it’s also not dye.It is not paint. I am so sick of people here claiming paint. It is not paint. There is a leather dye applied, which all leather good have, and then a protective coating on top of that. Once the protective coating wears off, the dye is exposed and left to wear away (better known as patina). The protective coating is what causes the look of “paint” as you say because it takes longer to break down in places that the leather isn’t touched often. That is the only difference in Apples leather from earlier and what they use now. It is not paint.
Strictly speaking, if you can rub the colour off leather like this, it is not dyed, but coated; dye chemically bonds to the material. You may not want to call it paint, but it’s also not dye.
Apple leather definitely wears less attractively than it used to. I have a nomad case made of horween leather which has a far more attractive patina, because it IS dyed, not just had a surface colour applied.
If I were to cut the nomad leather right through, it would be the same colour all the way through, because it’s been fully vegetable dyed. It wouldn’t be one colour on the top and another dark colour underneath, as the Apple leather clearly is nowadays. However it’s done, the Apple leather is clearly a dark leather with only a surface colour applied; which wears off over (not much) time.It does not rub off! You can’t run your finger across it and pieces of “paint” come off. It wears just like any other leather after use. The protective coating is what makes it so much different in different spots. If one area doesn’t get touched much, the proactive coating doesn’t wear off.
Your Nomad band doesn’t have the protective coating, so it wears the leather from the start.
I’ve had the strap for over a year now. I was curious if there was anything I could do to remedy it but it appears from the posts I can’t. Not a big deal. I wonder if the brown leather would be much better or if black leather is the better option to reduce the appearance of wear.How long have you been using that band?
looks like your desk or countertop is abrasive but that particular color will show this wear the most.
Take it to the Apple Store and they might even replace it.
See post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ing-away.2363251/?post=32095278#post-32095278
I’ve had the strap for over a year now. I was curious if there was anything I could do to remedy it but it appears from the posts I can’t. Not a big deal. I wonder if the brown leather would be much better or if black leather is the better option to reduce the appearance of wear.
If I were to cut the nomad leather right through, it would be the same colour all the way through, because it’s been fully vegetable dyed. It wouldn’t be one colour on the top and another dark colour underneath, as the Apple leather clearly is nowadays. However it’s done, the Apple leather is clearly a dark leather with only a surface colour applied; which wears off over (not much) time.
Same with eg white leather trainers. You don’t find them developing black spots as they wear, because the leather is white throughout.