Cork itself is waterproof! There’s a reason it’s used to seal wine bottles! However, I use a cotton-polyester backed cork fabric and webbing. Cotton and polyester both absorb water, very quickly and very easily. This means that your collar can absolutely be worn in the rain to very little affect, but it cannot be submerged without the expectation that it will take in water.

Collars that have been submerged should be air dried for 24-48 hours.

So you took your dog swimming in his cork collar… It’s okay!! My cork is dyed with colorfast ink via sublimation. Neither solid color or patterned cork will smear or bleed if exposed to water. Additionally, prior to coming to me, it is treated with a UV resistant guard so it will not fade over time.

Cork is naturally water-, UV-, scratch- and tear-resistant, colorfast, flame retardant, and antimicrobial! It has the same general lifespan and smooth, textured feel as leather. To double up on all of those benefits, all of my collars are backed with polyester, such that the cork takes 0% of the pressure when your dog sees a squirrel.

Most noticeably, cork will (similar to leather) begin showing wear and tear on any tight folds or corners first. This is especially true of bags, and truthfully, some cork (particularly patterned cork) does it more easily than other cork. Secondly, if embroidered, cork will typically begin to tear at the places where the needle strikes multiple times. The more holes put into the fabric, the weaker the fabric will become.

Unlike leather and bling collars, cork does not need to be treated with oil or varnish of any kind in order to maintain its beauty.

The most it needs is basic upkeep when your dog goes rolling in a pile of horse manure. You can simply take a regular dish soap, warm water, and a paper towel and give it a quick scrub by hand to remove any dirt or grime from the cork. Thread will likely take in more of the dirt than the cork, so if necessary, focus your attention there.

It is not recommended to launder your cork collar in the washer or dryer. Ironing can be done with a high steam if necessary for very short periods of time.

Almost all cork in the world comes from Portugal and Spain, sustainably sourced from massive cork oak forests where the bark is harvested with the trees still standing and alive after the fact. These climates aren’t known for their rain, so the trees are extremely well adapted to low humidity.

Cork fabric is treated with a water-based sealant and thusly will not crack due to lack of moisture and does not require any form of special storage.

If you have a rather ambiguous or abstract design on your collar, it can be tricky to determine whether or not it’s being worn upside down. In this case, refer to the D2K9 logo tag on the inside of the collar. The old logo tag has basting pins, they should be at the bottom edge of the collar! On the newer logo tags without basting pins, D2K9 should be upright read left to right.

Cork harvesting is considered an extremely sustainable practice. Cork extractors take great care in manually removing the bark, so as not to damage the inner tree, which means that the tree stays alive during and after harvesting. It is then left for another 9+ years to regenerate.

Processing cork into cork fabric requires no chemicals at all, so nothing is leeched into the groundwater, air, or soil. Even the dye used for coloring is plant-based.

Cork’s main contributor to climate change is within the export/import chains, but this is minimal compared to the millions of tons of CO2 cork forests absorb annually.n goes here

Due to the nature of cork, there can be some inconsistency expected - sometimes the pores are darker colored, entire inches of cork look like they’re shadowed, the shape or size of pressed fleck can vary from what is modeled. This is the nature of the beast with using a tree bark. It is probably most obvious with natural cork as it is not dyed with any colorant, though it can also be the case with dyed cork. Lighting can also play a factor in the way that these collars appear in person, on mobile, or on desktop. Please keep in mind that these imperfections make your collar as unique as your dog. Sometimes a specific color or pattern of cork will be discontinued or I only had a small batch available to work with in the first place. I will do my best to color match in the event that this occurs. Unless it is a significant difference, this will be done without notice.