Black shoe dye, either Fieblings or Angel. It goes on blue-black, with an orange-ish sheen. Then follow with shoe polish. That's if it's leather. For vulcanite, you'll have to use a plastic patch.
Be extremely careful with shoe dyebecause if you get it on anything, you will have a huge problem. It's even good a staining grained stainless steel.
That said, there is no need to "nourish," "feed" or coddle leatherette (which in the camera variety and especially old cameras is really what we would call
bonded leather). It gets its strength from adhesive binders and its backing, which cannot be renewed (Armor All's claims notwithstanding). The front is just chopped leather bits (microscopic) held together with glue (leatherette is made from byproducts of other leather production, the grain being pressed in, and the whole thing essentially being painted). If your leatherette is falling apart, it probably has nothing to do with its tenuous relationship to an animal. It's the man-made part that's failing.
By the way, car "leather" is actually not that much different (car leather is either bonded or heavily treated), and that's one of the reasons it's so tough and liquid-resistant.
Dante
