If something offends then by all means skip it.

The shoes are made of "Lorica" which is an Italian made artificial leather. I first saw it in my late 80's (or early 90's) Sidi mountain bike shoes. It works quite well. For clips and straps it seems to wear noticeably better than leather against the buckle and toe clip. For clipless I found that it hangs in there under stress far better than leather.

I think the last pair of cycling shoes I had that were leather were my Sidi Genius from maybe 1987 or so. They were the original Genius with no ratchet action on the main strap.