We had that problem to with the killer kitten. These are leather. So far, no sign of clawing these. If you want to stick with fabric, some fabrics are better than others. We had two old chairs and the back of one was thoroughly shredded, the other showed little evidence of damage. I can't say for certain whether it was a preference on the part of the cat, or durability of the fabric.
edit2:Flash! I didn't have Flash plugin installed!