In this study, leather fibers have been used as an additive in several elastomeric compounds based on nitryl butadiene rubber (NBR), chloroprene rubber (CR), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM), and chlorinated isobutylene-isoprene rubber (CIIR). The effects of employing fibers upon vulcanization characteristics, physcio-mechanical and thermal properties of the compounds were studied. Measuring of vulcanization characteristics of the compounds exhibited that leather fibers has no considerable effect on initial viscosity, processability, and curing time of the compounds but increases cross-link density. Evaluation of mechanical properties of the vulcanized compounds showed that using leather fibers leads to increase in tensile strength of NBR-based compound due to compatibility between NBR and leather fibers. Also hardness of all compounds increased drastically by employing leather fibers. The obtained results showed incorporation of leather fibers had no considerable effect on resilience, density, and thermal stability of compounds but enhanced liquid resistance. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 111: 1670-1657, 2009