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Eelskin Wallets - What Are They Really Made Of?

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"Silk of the Seas..." What's really in your Eel-Skin Wallet?

Eelskin is a popular leather replacement - soft and durable, and a by-product of fishing, it is used mainly for wallets and handbags, but can also be found as shoes and clothing! However... there is a great and terrible secret. Eel skin wallets are not eel skin at all! That picture on the left is an eelskin wallet in waiting - but it's not the eel you're thinking of.

This page is here to debunk the myths and expose the truth around eel skin wallets - what are they really? Do they really destroy your credit card? And is that much of a discount legal?

You're probably thinking of this kind of eel...

Freshwater eels from around the world

pic_0190 by Thespis377
American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) by cliff1066™
Freshwater Eels by GregTheBusker
pic_0179 by Thespis377
pic_0241 by Thespis377
curated content from Flickr

Or possibly the electric eel

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But you should be thinking of the hagfish

The hagfish is a deepsea eel-like fish, also known as the 'slime eel' and 'snot fish'



They're very successful, rather unpleasant scavengers, who live on the sea floor and eat dead and dying fish - by any orifice necessary. They haven't evolved for a very long time and are quite primitive - one of the only jawless (Agnathan) fish left - another is the lamprey.

They're most renowned for the huge volumes of slime they ooze out of their pores - probably as a defence mechanism (one undersea video shows them swarming bait, and another fish that tries to butt in and grab something to eat swims off choking with a mouth full of slime). It turns from clear to... well, snotty, on reaction with the water around it.
Eddie and the Hagfish
by oceancoral | video info

428 ratings | 301,351 views
automatically generated by YouTube

Eelskin Wallets - The Silk of the Seas

Or should that be the 'slime' of the seas?

Hagfish skin is soft and strong, and is sold worldwide as 'Eel-skin'. It's become a popular ethical alternative to leather for shoes, handbags, belts and wallets. Even better, as it is eaten in Asia, it's a culinary by-product. Eel skin is suppler and stronger than normal leather, and the fact that no two skins are the same means that every item made is truly unique.

So most of your fashion accessories - mostly wallets, credit card holders and purses, but also including some oddities such as boxes and shoes - come from the Pacific Hagfish (the slime eel). Some species are now endangered due to the eel-skin trade.

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Is calling them eelskin misleading advertising?

Or are hagfish eels to everyone anyway?

It's pretty obvious why eelskin is marketed as eelskin - no one really wants a slime eel purse! And while the Hagfish isn't actually an eel, it's close enough in appearance that most people wouldn't know or care about the difference.

Is it misleading to label eelskin wallets as eel, not hagfish?

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Yes! (Although I can see why they would)

aesta1 says:

What's new? Advertisers often do this.

nicole says:

so how can i know if i buy true eel skin or hag fish?

Flynn_the_Cat says:

Well as a biologist, who gets hung up on phylogeny (where it's reasonably certain) I now have the urge to correct everything that says 'eel with an 'actually... it's not Anguilla it's Agnatha or Myxini.

No - most people would think hagfish are eels anyway

 

This is what a REAL Eel-skin Purse looks like

A non-hagfish purse

100% Genuine Eel Skin Large Coin Purse

100% Genuine Eel Skin Large Coin Purse

$10.00

This purse actually IS eel-skin - from a Conger eel, to be specific.

Let's Ask It A Different Way - Does it Put You Off?

Do you still want an eelskin wallet, now you know it's made of hagfish?

Did learning about the hagfish put you off 'eelskin' products?

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Yes! EW!

Ella says:

I'd prefer to buy cloth products than anything containing animal skin. It's especially hard with shoes not to have leather in them, but I abstain from buying those products where-ever necessary.

I say it doesn't matter what animal it came from, I don't think it's ok to buy it

No - it's still worth buying, who cares what it originally came from?

Flynn_the_Cat says:

Actually, now I want to buy one MORE! I always felt a bit wary of them - I figured they were probably fake or something, the way they were usually advertised - but now I know where the catch is, I want to own one. Also so I can say 'oh, it's in my hagfish wallet' or 'do you like my hagfish [something]' or 'I bought these hagfish shoes especally for you dear, they bring out your eyes so well!'.

 

Some Eelskin Products

Shoes and Wallets and Handbags in spring - thes are a few of my favourite things!

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What Is A Conger Eel?

Photos of Conger Eels

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Eel-Skins on eBay

Find one cheap here!

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My eel-skin wallet demagnetised my credit card!

Poking holes in an urban legend (This one ISN'T true)

There was a popular panic theory running around that eel-skin wallets demagnetised (and therefore rendered useless) your credit cards due to

- leftover 'electric eel' residue (as most people believed that they were made from real eels)
- some kind of static picked up in transit by the eelskin
- an ferrous (iron) compound used in curing the skin

It has since been found that actually, it's the large and very strong magnetic clasps of a few brands that are causing the problems. So buy one without a magnetic clasp and you are safe - in fact, even with one, as long as it's not a huge one, you're probably still safe. The two links below - from Snopes and The Straight Dope investigate and refute the mythical magnetic properties of eelskin in more detail.

If you know of an interesting related link - please add it! And vote for the best article.

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snopes.com: Eelskin Demagnitizes

Do eelskin wallets demagnetize credit cards?0 points

3

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Amazon.com: MythBusters Season 2 - Episode 3: Barrel of Bricks: Movies & TV

It was also BUSTED in an episode of MythBusters!0 points

Guestbook

Heard any other stories about eelskin?

  • aesta1 Mar 13, 2011 @ 7:26 pm | delete
    Sort of like eel skin but these points are interesting. Often, I just stay away from animal skin excluding really good leather.
  • WildFacesGallery Apr 20, 2010 @ 10:07 am | delete
    slime fish and snot eel have pretty much no marketability. :) Eel skin sounds way better though it still kinda gives me an eew moment. No idea why I wear leather. Fickle I guess. :)
  • oztoo Apr 19, 2010 @ 4:37 pm | delete
    I can see why the name "hagfish" isn't used. Interesting and yes - quite random. Could be a useful one for trivia quiz night. Who'd have known an eelskin wallet isn't eelskin.
  • nickupton Apr 19, 2010 @ 9:28 am | delete
    Yes, just the lens I was looking for.
  • theraggededge Apr 19, 2010 @ 7:33 am | delete
    You are so random - lol! Blessed by an Ang-eel :-)
  • Flynn_the_Cat Apr 19, 2010 @ 7:52 am | delete
    Haha, oh yes :D My randomness increases in proportion to the presure of my assignments >.>

    And thank you oh holy eel. ...bwahaha. My captcha is 'gagsnog'
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Flynn_the_Cat

I'm a Marine Biology post-graduate student, digital artist, traditional artist and photographer, obsessive reader, librarian and internet addict.

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