After all this time with us at Wildhunde, surely it hasn’t escaped your notice that BioThane® is kind of a superstar around here. There’s an excellent reason for that. In our quest to provide the best quality dog gear around, our extensive research led us to our holy grail: BioThane®. It’s durable, it’s cleanable, it’s waterproof, it’s strong, and best of all; it comes in so many fun colours! (Don’t roll your eyes, you know we are like this!)
Rainbow leash wall... what rainbow leash wall?
But in all seriousness, in trying to strike a balance between good quality, and affordability; we do believe that you can’t go past BioThane®. It has a great rep, and rightfully so. We are so passionate about good quality and durable gear, which is why all our long lines are made out of Biothane. Long lines specifically (moreso than regular leads) will get dragged through bush, mud, sand and water so it's crucial for them to be able to withstand a healthy thrashing. Hence: Biothane!
What is “BioThane®”?
BioThane® is the registered brand name for a specific product. It’s not like just saying something is made from cotton, or leather. It’s a specific type of polyester webbing with a TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) or PVC (polyvinyl chloride) coating, and it’s made only by BioThane® USA. To put it in other terms, it’s fair to say that BioThane® is to PVC-coated webbing, what Coca-Cola is to the cola drink world.
As a material, BioThane® is comparable to leather. It performs similarly in products like dog leads, collars, horse tack and even waist belts. Not to mention it’s overall easier to maintain, and stronger than real leather. Don’t get us wrong, we still love a good leather leash! But when it comes to the practical application of dog gear, we just love BioThane® for its superior strength and versatility.
If you've been looking for a dog leash that's more sustainable than nylon and leather, then you'll be glad to know that BioThane fits the bill. It's not technically made with any animal product, but some of the manufacturing processes may contain animal byproducts, so while it's not vegan certified -- you might call it vegan adjacent!
BioThane® comes in a variety of coatings, but the main ones you will see in use are Gold, Granite and Beta. Gold is made with TPU, and has a glossy finish. Granite has a matte finish, and is much stiffer (it's more commonly used in horse harnesses for this reason) and then there's Beta. Beta also has a matte finish, but with a much smoother and more supple feel that makes it ideal for dog gear.
BioThane® vs Unbranded PVC
So, let’s have a face-off. Why is BioThane® better? Why not opt for cheaper alternatives that are practically the same thing? It can be so tempting to go for cheaper alternatives, and that’s fair – life is expensive (now more than ever) and we all try to save costs where we can. If you don’t necessarily know why something costs more, it’s easy to justify not paying for it.
To go back to our analogy, it’s easy to tell with something like Coca-Cola or Pepsi Max; you know it tastes so much better than LA Ice or other homebrand colas, right? With other PVC coated webbing products, on the surface they can often seem identical!
Compare the above leads. One of these is made by us using real BioThane® and the other is made by a certain Arabian folktale character, if you catch our drift. So, you may not always be able to tell based off looks alone! But ultimately, the difference will reveal itself. Other PVC webbing products often give themselves away by being slightly stiffer, or tacky to touch; making them uncomfortable in hand and less versatile in use. They will break and wear out far quicker than BioThane® products; meaning their overall longevity and durability is far less.
If you’ve followed us on socials for some time, you would see we’ve even put it to the test ourselves. We often go out of our way to buy some cheaper alternatives (not just with PVC webbing but testing different toys, tugs and hardware too). Then we test the heck out of it – just as we would with any product we were considering selling.
And look, sometimes we can admit that these products exceeded our expectations (yeah, we can admit when we’re wrong, we’re super humble like that) but we’ve yet to find one of these cheaper alternatives that can actually meet the Wildhunde standard (‘cause the bar is in heaven).
How do you know if it’s real BioThane®?
There are plenty of places out there that sell (or claim to sell) “BioThane" products. The good news is that BioThane® is actually pretty strict on who’s allowed to use their registered trademark! If the listing does not contain the registered trademark (the teeny little (R) at the end) anywhere in the description or product name, then it's probably a good bet that they don’t have the real thing. (We put ours in the product description!).
BioThane® USA has a pretty tight list of approved distributors as well, so if you’re still unsure... there should absolutely be a definitive trail back to the manufacturer! It never hurts to ask if you’re not sure! You can email BioThane® yourself and ask, and they’ll confirm if the seller/distributor is selling the real deal or not.
It's easy enough to sniff out the fakes!
In the end, we do believe that BioThane® truly speaks for itself. Its versatility and durability is unmatched; as evidenced by its prolific use in not just animal gear, but also medical equipment, NFL gear, and military tactical gear. We are always more than happy to discuss why its one of our top choices and why we will back it every time. No, we were not paid by BioThane® to make this article! We just genuinely think its the best.
