robs456

Yes, definitely. even your link says it's made with boiled leather. Boiling the leather will change the leather (on a molecular level?) and makes it very pliable and will dry hard as, well plastic. You need to make cuts, as many as you can up to the point the form begins, all around. If that makes sense?

Wouldn't all braids be abrasive to the ankle? To hide the stitching, would it be possible to add a thin, soft leather like buckstitched around? That would (in my mind) make it bulky still but softer to the ankle. (Hmm, red leather with black lace buckstitching would look sweet on those shoes...)

Hmm, whisky is half price already it seems...

Looks good. Thanks. And if it's a UK company I'll probably be able to get it for less than half price some time after October.... Sorry, just kidding... I hope...

Good stuff, but for us without 3D printers I think maybe thermoplastics could work. I've wanted to get into 3D printing for a while though so who knows what the future brings...

With all that work wouldn't it be better, more cost effective, using kydex or other perhaps cheaper thermoplastics? Or would that still be too expensive?

To use fewer words than farns005: You're right but it all happens on the grain side. I just started doing it as well, it is much nicer to cut in when the leather is 'slicked'.

Great. Get the cheap leather, make a prototype, post it here. Then you can get better advice on how to proceed I would think. Also, I've seen lots of UFC. Conor, I'll F 'im right up...

Great advice from the others above, all I have to add is that if you have to ask the question quoted then you shouldn't take the order. Not yet at least.

Maybe they were tariffs?

For sure, not saying they didn't pay dearly for the 'privilege'.

No problem, taking care of business comes first. And yeah, even as I wrote the post I noticed the contradictions but kept going to put it all out there. It was very therapeutic and of course gave me a lot to think about. Like: Yes, I had some kind of idea before but this thread have quite confirmed that I want to go the artistic route more. Thanks for making me realise that. I'm not averse to some small run work, say like 20 belts in short time, but don't want to do that all the time. Interesting idea. Had a guy that was gonna introduce me to John Norum (Europe) to basically start the word going, but nothing materialized. Better not rely on a friend of a friend... That's why I like doing custom work, I see it as a collab between customer and maker. Definitely not, the right process and machines (and QC) can turn out a great product. Which is why RockyAussie started these threads I guess, to help others get there too. But Volume with great art is something I haven't really seen. Usually that means embossing machines which will never look as good as hand stamping or carving. Or it will mean having a lot of people working under pressure like in the old(?) saddlemakers that made Porter and Sheridan tooling famous...I have seen some of those saddles and they are 'good' not great. More than you think I guess. Some people want/need handstitched for the extra toughness/strength -though most products don't really require that today- and some for the looks. And a few for the fact that a person did all the work on the product. No, I can think of a few places to have this outsourced to in Sweden, still having that 'Made in Sweden' badge... Yes, will check if this exists already or if I can start one. For most of us this is 100% true, only the big brands don't really have to do more than put their brand on 'whatever' and it will sell. We on the other hand need to make something so great, that it warrants the customer to brag about it to all their friends.

I guess not ---Western tooled leather. All cowboy stuff is 'exotic' to us foreigners. Sheridan tooling is the typical American art. As a funny side note I was in Taiwan this summer and had a discussion about leathercraft and showed some of my carved projects. The comment was "OH, you can do Japanese style!" Haha... Well, checking insta and the Japanese can make great Sheridan 'stuff'.

Man, first I was thinking you're asking at the worst possible time, but maybe it's the best...'cos the truth is that I've been second guessing the brand over the summer. So right now I don't know. I came out at the start with the main idea of 'Handmade in Sweden' -to make good quality product that's made locally and small scale as opposed to the 'made in India' stuff that's cheap and crap quality. Plan was/is to get in on the medium to high price scale with goods that people who knows good leather or even just those who can see and appreciate the difference between my stuff and the crap mass-produced bonded leather stuff everyone here sells. I went with this fully knowing two big weaknesses: 1. It's more of an idea than a Brand and 2. I would have very few customers, but the ones I'd have would have money, class and the 'right' attitudes. There are more cons of course and a few pros as well (or I'd not do it). Now I'm second guessing the whole premise of doing this business that way, along with the brand etc. First off, it's been hard to find customers online even though I'm marketing all over Europe (insta/FB -and that's another story...) and I'm beginning to think most non-Swedes don't care much for "made in Sweden". Two, while meeting people in person in markets or other venues it has finally hit me how very few actually cares about: 1. Leather/Material 2. Quality 3. where it's made. What most people seem to care about is: 1. How it looks on them (self-image) 2. Brand (Big Brand that is) 3. Money (This list can also be reversed.) This is quite funny as I've read and participated in forum posts and offline discussions about this and I've always 'known' this but now I KNOW it... I have no inclination to pander to the 'Gray mass' and spend time making subpar stuff just to move product, I'm snobby enough to take a loss of potential gain just to do what I want to do. Another weakness for sure(?). So my conundrum now is how to (re?)define my brand and then how to market it/position it in the market. And what market to go for, even though I've kinda already answered that one -upper mid to high level disposable income. Now for the niche, like I said above I've been talking to (not selling in) high end jeans shops as I figured if someone splashes 3-600 USD on a pair of jeans they's like a nice belt (maybe custom even?) to go with them. I like making belts and bracelets, keyrings because they sell (especially the cheaper ones) and various other small goods like carved notebook covers and I'm getting into wallets. Did do a lot of cardholders but they're getting so boring to make now, except if I can make an artwork out of them like the 'samurai' ones on my insta... I should go into making bags as people love bags, but I don't really like making them for various reasons. Then, knowing the above, there's the question of HOW and WHERE to market to the selected niche/demography... Well, according to the same report you got the numbers from the top two by far is Norway and Germany, followed by the Dutch, Danish and Finnish. But those who shop the most I would guess is the Germans, Americans and the Chinese. Though they tend to buy the 'typical Swedish things' which are not what I'd even like to do. One thing here though could be getting into homeware in the typical 'Scandinavian design' that's so famous. That's actually an old idea of mine and my shop even has such a category, though I've not really committed to any jawdropping designs yet. Oh, and about Scaling: Some local Startup gurus here had a look at my stuff and my prospects for launching the business and they all went "Ah nice stuff..Can you scale it up" or "How will you scale it up"? Thing is at the moment I'm at the mindset that I don't WANT to scale up. Keep it small scale, good quality and reasonably high priced and I'm good. No need to be the next LVMH. If money starts pouring in that mindset might change , but right now I'm all for keeping it small. And preferably without machinery to keep it handmade (though I'm seriously contemplating getting a sewing machine). Leather companies that scale up too fast is one of my pet peeves. There's a few Swedish companies (like https://www.sandqvist.com) that launched as small companies making good product. That linked company now makes most of its stuff in India and the poor quality shows (loose threads, crooked alignments etc etc). I'm more of the mindset of 'If you're gonna do it, do it well'. Wow, that got real long real fast. I don't know if I even replied to the original question and sorry for hijacking the thread with my rants. It was very therapeutic to write though. Any comments and tips/hints from all and everyone are welcome.

Yes, you have like 60 million people while in Sweden we have 8 million only, so trying to find the right niche. Lately been trying to sell belts to specialist jeans shops.

Thanks. The sale or return seems to be available more with the smaller businesses, the downside is that they don't have any motivation to display it in a good spot. Happened to me once at least, I noticed it half way through, fixed it, but then I'm not there every day so who knows what happens when I leave...

Thanks for the reply. I try to make it so they can mark it up 100%. Sometimes that's not possible and I've noticed they're less interested then...

Thanks for writing this up. Interesting stuff. This is where I am now. Had a few meetings but nothing's came out of them. For me there's been no such thing as a discussion, more like "What do you have?...No, don't want it..." and I'm like "What you want then? I'm can make whatever." and they go "Make something and email us a pic and we'll go from there" and I'm like "F dat"... Advice from anyone on how to deal with small to medium size shops/companies would be appreciated.

Effin' A.

Using Illustrator. Staying away from PS.

Sure, I think anyone can sell stuff if they had access to models and the budget to run them over with large vehicles. I'm guessing the insurance covers the hospital/estate... But I hear what you're writing, more girls, less animals .... To all others, that last thing is an inside joke....check my insta to get it...

Actually, I thought this was about how to make videos about leather goods. While the practical stuff like shooting and editing can be found elsewhere, I'd like to know how to actually make an interesting vid about the leather goods itself for marketing. 'Cos I'm so tired of the typical 'hipster porn' classical music slow motion ASMR crap, not to mention the usual 'How-to' vids where someone takes 90 minutes to show how to make a 'card wallet' by slapping two pieces of leather together while getting glue all over the grain side. Or is that what moves product?

You can try but it won't last.

Actually, a few do. But not on that scale though. Seems like they use either bad leather, too dry leather or too hard stitching strength. Or a combo. Maybe the machine sewers here can school me/us if the wrinkling could be the result of wrong settings on a machine?

As you want to design it yourself, buying a pattern is not the solution. Even if that would be the simple way out... So you need to draw what you want then prototype like mad. I recommend using cardboard the same thickness as your leather and either cutting off or taping on pieces until you have what you need. Then use that as a template on your leather.