I have river road saddle bags and a willie and max fork bag and they seem to be made of similar material. I can tell you that my river road bags have held up pretty good through some heavy rain and my gear stayed dry. Is there a visual difference between leather and fake? Sure there is, but what will the leather ones look like after being weathered a few years. My bags still look like they did when new.
Do a search for saddle bags for more opinions, all kinds of bags have been used here.
