I'm not meaning to specifically target you Steven
Hand-rubbing is how Fodera does their finish - it's the easiest way to get a consistent matte finish that is easily repairable. Matte paints have compounds in them to make them matte, but it's never perfectly consistent and will eventually buff up to a shine under any touch points.
I also use scotch brites to get my matte finishes, but I don't just use a single pad, I use the 3M Hand Pads kit and use all of the grits. The green grit you see everywhere is not one of their hand-pads, though it looks identical, it's their 'scouring' pad and is a lower and non-consistent grit they use for cleaning purposes. The hand pads are white, grey, maroon, dk grey and tan. When I'm doing a matte, I use all going from tan to white and I use little circles and the odd wipe with the grain. Going up through the grits will give you a very uniform matte finish at the end that looks like it's been sprayed that way. Its super easy to blend in a repair or restore the matte though.
