6 Reasons to buy Brazilian Cowhide Rugs

The world of rugs is wonderful, but it can also be dangerous.

Perhaps not dangerous in the way James Bond is dangerous, but dangerous in the way that your in-laws are dangerous: Failure to succeed will not result in death, but it probably will result in mean looks and an uncomfortable vibe in the room.

Therefore, it is important that you know what you are getting into with certain kinds of rugs. Each rug has nuances to its fashion that will inform you to its use.

Take Brazilian cowhide rugs for instance. What aesthetic do they serve? Why buy them?

There are six good reasons why. Starting with:

1.  They Make you Look Rugged

Of course, they cannot, themselves, actually make you rugged. But how often do you buy a rug to convince yourself of your own character traits?

No, a rug is a statement, meant to be heard by another person. And in this case the statement is that you are a roughneck who is not afraid to get their hands dirty. You know where your meat comes from, you know your place on the food chain, and you are fine with it.

Given how many people would have you feel guilt over these very things, making your home a place that takes overt pride in them can be risky. Risky, but brave.

2.  They are More Ethical Than Other Animal Hides

Humans eat so much beef that they actually need to raise and slaughter more cows than there are humans on the earth. Not even all humans eat beef (strangely enough) and yet still their need for the meat requires massive investments into livestock care every year.

Brazilian cowhide is harvested from an animal that is in no danger of going extinct. This is what sets it apart from the opulence of a tiger skin rug, or the viciousness of a bear skin rug.

Those are animals that humans don’t regularly eat. They are beautiful creatures killed for sport that live on the verge of extinction. But not cows.

How strange it must seem to cows that they outnumber humans. The common perception is that humans have terraformed cow environments to suit themselves.

But given how much land has been set aside for cows, might not the opposite be true? That humans have warped part of their own habitat to suit the cows?

3.  They are American

This is, in a way, related to the point about the ethics of Brazilian cowhide rugs. Brazilian cowhides are, obviously, made in Brazil. But the product’s conception goes back a long way in the canon of Native Americans’ use of cows.

Rugs made from bears, sheep, and even dogs, are all extremely European inventions. This is brooked as no insult: Those were simply the animals available at the time.

The trouble is, as stated before, those customs stuck around even as the animals themselves were no longer used for their meat. A large cowhide rug, however, will almost certainly be part of an animal that was used as food as well as comfort.

In fact, that animal was probably used for a great number of things. Its tendons can be pulled apart for rubber, its bladder can be broken down for designer handbags.

Really, the Native American way of making use of every part of the animal has not gone away. It has only gotten more advanced as science has caught up with the custom’s intention.

4.  They Work in all Seasons

A normal rug will have to be replaced in the winter. It will be too thin, too susceptible to the cold, for it to be at all comfortable on a hardwood floor. The heat will be sapped right out of it.

So, imagine you replace it in the winter with a thicker rug. Something bushy with fluff that retains all the heat that goes into it when you walk on it. Well, now you have a rug that will be far too warm come spring time. What is the solution then? What is the middle ground?

Enter the Brazilian cowhide rug.

Brazilian cowhide, like many leathers, gets its warmth from friction, not force. This is why leather has been used since the time of ancient man as hunting coats: It’s easier to hunt in light leather than in heavy fur, and leather still keeps you warm as long as you are moving.

In the spring, your large cowhide rug will be cool. And when it’s winter, it will serve to warm you.

5.  They are Accessible

As far as centerpieces to a certain kind of room go, cowhide is far cheaper than many other kinds of animal skin. Bearskin in particular can go for tens of thousands of dollars. And those are not even legal in many states!

Cowhide will cost $500 at the most and is easy to find, buy, and ship anywhere.

You will probably start to notice how these reasons to buy a cowhide rug relate to each other very tightly. That is because above all other reasons…

6.  Cowhide is What People Prefer

Bearskin, wolfskin, sheepskin, these are the materials that the rich businessmen of high fashion want you to covet. They are materials that are tightly controlled by small groups of wealthy elitists who believe it is their voices that determine what consumers want.

But not only do you know better than that, the entire market knows better than that. The boom of Brazilian cowhide rugs is evidence of this rebellion in the industry.

Where previously you couldn’t go two steps while shopping for rugs without some luxurious leopard print atrocity being thrown in your face, now all people want is the product that works for them.

And that’s the best about cowhide: Above the fact that it looks good, above the fact that it is more ethical than its competitors, it works.

So, go and try it out. See what it does for your living room.