RockyAussie

I'm not much for giving flip answers @robs456 and I as usual up to my eyeballs with orders to get by the end of the month. I do have a few suggestions but they will have to wait until the weekend I am sorry. For now I am curious if you could tell me why a person should buy Rob5? I don"t mean that product ....I mean the brand? You may only have 8 million people there but 29.9 million tourists went there in 2017. Tourists in Sweden spent 317 billion kronor in 2017, enough to make it the top year for tourism of all time. Could you tell me what is the nationality of the largest amount of tourists that go there?

HOMEWORK - HOMEWORK – HOMEWORK I often observe where a new coming leatherworker questions why his or her products are not selling well. Many here have been bitten by the bug to work with leather and then go on to look for sales for their sometimes almost great works of art. Many people they know will compliment them on their talent and even suggest they should offer these products for sale. As well meaning as this advice is given it is GENERALLY WRONG. I will offer two reasons in particular: 1. The product has not been exposed to any proper market research yet. 2. The product is often not ready or able to be reproduced in a profitable manner. In this post I will address the first of these reasons. Many people will make what they themselves think should sell and put this up on Etsy or some other sales platform and basically do little more than roll the dice. This will give you very little feedback other than if it does sell and how quickly. This to me is needles expensive gambling Other people will take it to markets and if they are clever will enquire from onlookers how their products could be changed in some way that would make them buy the product. What price would they pay for it etc. Remember this – You are NOT the buyer......They are. This is a correct method if selling into these markets is what you are happy to do. Way way back I tried a little selling at the markets but for me I could earn the same $ back in my shop every day of the week and without having to give up my weekend. The packing up stuff to take and laying it out and packing it back up and unpacking again was just not that much fun. All of us have different personalities and some are happy in a market place surrounded by people, some will prefer shops where a more one on one is possible and some like myself like to be left alone to work on their craft. I grew up in the outback bush in Australia around the Barcaldine Longreach area which is the environment for which I always have the fondest memories. For me the best is to be able to live and work in the bush and work on stuff that I mostly enjoy doing. I went from a shop in town where I often had customers waiting in line out the doors and up the footpath to a factory I had built out in the middle of a hundred+ acres in the bush. As I had to have regular dispatch and deliveries being close to a major town was essential so we ended up about 15 minutes out of the town Rockhampton. In an earlier post I said that I would expand on this statement – “Your comments have given me food for thought and bring me to realise that an expansion of how I get products into the market would be something to share for some that may have any interest. I do not have any problems getting orders for product or customers in fact quite the opposite. Over the years I have had to become very selective about what further customers and product types I can handle”. In order to get to this stage what I did is my HOMEWORK. You can be a good leather worker and you can be a good marketer or seller of product but very, very few (including myself) can be good or anywhere near to optimal at both at the same time. 1. I established my best markets to target. A person from Japan or China if visiting Australia has no interest in buying something here that they could buy back at home. Likewise if I travel to Bali I would buy a memento that is made in Bali. Not Korea or Singapore or anywhere else other than Bali. In everyone’s country there are generally established tourist areas. Having the country where it’s made on the product is essential. Australian labour is not cheap and getting the highest possible price point is important. Shops in these areas are often paying expensive rents and their mark-ups needed can be well over 100%. Means you’ve got to be quick and efficient and very reliable. These businesses realise that they need to supply products that are made in that country ideally and that to some degree you and I are not competing with cheaper products made in other cheaper labour countries so much. In Australia most of the town shops sell products made in China and that is by far the biggest amount of sales. Funny thing is that the Chinese are today my biggest end buyer and will pay more than most Australians will to get it.!!!! 2. Armed with a few prototype products I made appointments to discuss with the buyers the type of products that they would like and what type ofproducts they sell the quickest. This was sometimes hard to get to the bottom off and get straight answers. Better than friends and generally acquaintances by far, but still they do not want to say what is wrong with your offering so much. One ladies purse in particular I did, I thought would be a sure thing and after a lot of discussion and checking with a few different buyers it was agreed that the credit card slots needed to be an upright position when you opened the purse. But I put to them the buyers that the cards if they ever fell out of the slots would be caught in the middle of the purse. Turns out that the Japanese were the largest amount of tourists into the country at that time and the way they presented their cards to people. When and how they took out the cards and presented them to the receiver was important. Another thing I found that although most Australian buyers liked the full leather linings in wallets and purses the shop buyers did not. The combination of using material and leather in the linings came in to place and gave the advantage of being thinner and holding more cards etc. Japan and Germany and some other places have high denomination coins and coin pockets in wallets become more desirable feature. The point is that there are many sometimes unexpected differences in different market places that need to be found out before committing time and resources $$$ into making up stuff to sell. In production a clicker press is normally needed and the cost of the knives will soon tell to do your homework well first. As I already had some machines and experience at working with leather from my shoe repair and shoe making businesses (not essential to have at the start but helped) and my homework on what the market wanted and orders in hand, I then went ahead. Years later I now have less but much larger customers that give me more orders than I need. Most of these including the largest are on a pay before it leaves basis and that is what I recommend to build toward. The slowest paying customers are generally the largest ones and even with them paying up front they can sometimes take a month or more because of all the signatures involved. Sometimes signatures have to be done in other countries as well. Last note: Some in the trade would be surprised to learn that I have not and will not sign any contracts with my customers. Some have large brand names and if anyone wants to sue for some perceived fault in a product that they can dream up, those persons would be likely to go after a big brand for money than me who nobody knows. In my books they make big money of my stuff they can take that risk themselves. Some like ORVIS will try and get you to sign where you have to pay them if you’re late in delivery of their order. Nope- no way. I sign NOTHING. I will attempt to get into the How to get products ready in a profitable manner in another post on some other weekend. I hope that in some way you may find something of use to you in this and please feel free to add any comments that you think may assist others in finding their markets as well. Brian

Just a comment for what its worth....I have for many many years always sewn my belts on a post mostly or a cylinder machine for this very reason. I should say though that I think the problem here is the leather itself and it has a loose top layer. If you push your finger firmly along it you can see the skin move along like a wave. When you are doing a lot it can catch sometimes and sometimes it is not visible until the belt is bent one way or the other.

I will look forward to seeing it done. Take care my friend.

Coming from people like yourself with your own awesome talent ....I am soooo happy that you say this. I hope to be able to work out a way to be able to share my knowledge and generally if I want something I find a way to get it.

Thanks you ...I sort of felt after all the high references from @mikesc about me above I better throw something in here. So much that you have said Mike would appear to be true. I will get back tomorrow to touch on these thoughts a little more. It is almost like I need to write a book of my past and experiences to date and finding the time to explain myself better is always a challenge. I wish I had the way with words that you and JLS at times seem to have in abundance.

Mostly that goes into key tags and wristbands but its too beautiful to just throw away. Here's a few for you

Beautiful is the only word to use here I think. Funny thing about carving on leather is that I sort of prefer it without all the colour. To me its like painting a Greek statue.Could you imagine David in some way painted? From your other works I suspect that you could prove me wrong.

Thanks Mike that would be an interesting documentary to see for sure. I have seen a fella over here does some stuff like that called the "Bare Foot Bushman" . He reckons you gotta be careful not to step on their feet cause they will bite you. He has bin bit a few times as I recall. I will have to tell you about an aboriginal friend Claton) that has worked with crocs for many years and told me more about how they clean out the breeding ponds every year or so. After most of the crock are removed they have to find and get rid of any lagers.The importance of not stepping on their feet becomes pretty evident. I asked how do they go about doing this and he explained how they go through the dirty water ponds and feel around with their bare feet carefully moving along and up the croc being careful not to step on their feet and toward the head. Once the get to the head with a thick hessian bag they slide it down untill the eye teeth are located and then grab their mouth together and pull them up and out. I said well if I had to do that job I would be the last in line. He laughed at me and I though him a bit mad and he went on to explain that he always went first. What..????. yeah when I feel a real big one.. I keep on going and leave it for the fellas behind me.

These jewellery pieces I designed to use the same size inset piece being about a 20x10mm oval. After that its into the bin. Not duckin this question Bracelets Cufflinks Drop earrings and pendant

Interesting idea but some further examples may be necessary. I would have thought that being in Dubai would present a good market place for example.

She is not happy for a picture of even the orthotics? With arthritis and associated problems in the feet I would recomend trying to keep the shoes light and not overly structured. I have witnessed where some surgical shoe makers have made their traditional Herman Munster boots to see blisters and sores that are horrific. Being told that they have to wear them in is Bullshit.The age of the person and thinness of their skin must be considered highly. I will leave you with a recommendations to consider in your next pair. Do not make the heel counter come down as far as normal and do not make them overly strong and inflexible. Slipping at the heel is a common problem that gives blisters and many other resulting lack of support problems.At the top of the heel counter between the lining and the heel counter put in a 1/8" or more thickness of some foam rubber. This would normally be about 3"+ straightish at the top line and about 1/2" deep at the very back coming around to nearly 1" deep where it cups around just above the calcaneus bone. Wrapping your hand around above the heel bone with your thumb and finger will give you some idea. The next is adding a 3 to 4mm piece of leather to the bottom of your last. This is to accommodate a preferably high memory foam insole/sock liner. If you allow room for a eva rubber style insole they can be sanded down here and there until the shoe feels perfect. I seem to recall that you have some sort of a vacuum setup and that may come in handy if you want to do a little trick that I used to do (other than make orthotics). If you can find out where to get some clear thermo mould-able plastic sheeting about .6mm thick you may be able to get it to mould to your last shape. Sort of the TW shoe tester. This is normally sucked down onto the last with an insole leather attached to it beforehand. The top line is marked on your last then cut out and sliced down the centre line to about where your lacing would end on a derby style. You put this on the persons foot and if there is any tight areas (bone swellings ) it will be VERY obvious as the skin will be very white in comparison to the surrounding skin. Also any loose areas will be able to be seen and you can decide if they should be removed from the last or not. This plastic is somewhat stiff and not as forgiving as the leather version shoe and is a very good acid test of your last shape. Elastic type laces are sometimes good to use as well. I hope that it all goes well for you and her.

That is fairly close to my main operating method. (95% is not done through my Wild Harry brand) Your comments have given me food for thought and bring me to realise that an expansion of how I get products into the market would be something to share for some that may have any interest. I do not have any problems getting orders for product or customers in fact quite the opposite. Over the years I have had to become very selective about what further customers and product types I can handle. As this will take quite a bit of time to outline/explain I will leave it until next week end and may do it in another new post perhaps as it would be more about the business of setting up a business than on how to make product profitably. Note: This would be of little interest to hobbiests. (my speil chekr dont like "hobbiests" n I don c a r e)

So was I ......I used the loo beside that bathtub in the dark of night and got a little spooked when I heard some rustling over to the other side of me from the bath tub. I knew there was a good reason I jumped up when I get to the bed sometimes...... No kiddin this true the croc farmer that was using these 2 crocs for some sort of educational thing met up with me later that day with one of his hands all bandaged up and had to have a whole heap of stitches. I had enquired about if he used rubber bands or tape or something around their mouths when he showed them off. I was curtly informed of his many years of experience and that that would not be necessary. The education department decided against doing any more of these shows. It bit him in the classroom full of kids. Like I said before I might be croc food if I say much more.

Also I should have added a picture of the soles of her feet. I would be trying to see how much metatarsal drop compared to bunion swelling amongst other stuff. I am in the middle of a large run of belts so I will have to check back on and off today. If one knee goes inward more than the other are things to be noted as well.

Soooo true. Ferg I have a bit of experience with this but not ever without seeing and feeling the feet of the wearer. This probably wont be liked by her but if you could post a picture of her feet standing flat on the floor a couple of inches apart from the knees down would help. Also any orthotics that have been done recently. I understand if she would rather not.

No ....I am talking about doing videos on "how to make leather goods and profitably" That's toooo easy. You make up a nice Birkin style handbag and get a nicely dressed elegant model to walk up the street.....hesitate momentarily with her head held high and walk across the road. Have a bus run her over and the beautiful bag rock just a little as it comes to a clean and untouched position proudly standing among the pretty red surroundings. Slowly zoom to the bag Works for some it seems.... but I taint buying Thanks Brian I will leave out the Birkin bus one though I think.....only cos my video skills are not quite at that level yet damn it. OOH man..... that would be a long winded story that might take some better articulation skills than me,myself and I got to sound interesting. I could tell you about some of the visits I've had with the crocodile people but then I'd probable get to be a part of their next feeding. I actually woke up in a motel one morning to find out that the 2 crocs that I was told could not climb out of the bathtub actually could. One I found with his snout hanging out under the rail on the balcony....we were 14 floors up. I will keep it in mind and perhaps try and come up with something not overly boring before I kick off. Thanks for your comment @maxdaddy.

Looks good and well done. Post a price here when you get that sorted. Are you working on a narrower needle plate slot as well? just wondering as you have that off and it is one thing that makes these machines WAAAAY more versatile than the original. With a ground down thinner feed dog of course.

Makes getting spare parts when you need them a whole lot easier and cheaper as well.

I'm thinking that I will do a post along the line of what machinery would be advisable to have as a leather goods manufacturer regardless of whatever type of goodies one may want to produce. Most like myself start off small with very little and make a lot of mistakes $$$$$ in what machinery they can get to do a job. Then the jobs evolve and the product range broadens and undergoes design changes and that machinery needs to be able to handle these changes as well. Because I do more crocodile skin products than any one else in Australia I have to provide a very broad range of products compared to most manufacturers and do it at a higher standard and at a price that can be done within Australia which as far as I know is about the dearest labour market in the world. This means that for myself the machinery costs may seem expensive at times but the labour costs would be impossible with out it. Many Asian countries that I have to compete with often have trouble in the opposite ways. A glue gun I use here costs say $50 and wears out every 2 years or so and labour costs over $1000 per week. In Bali when last I looked the labour was about $25 per week so that glue gun might be 2 weeks wages. In my world that glue gun would be $2000 and therefore I would be gluing 5 times slower without it and still be in front in $ terms. Gets complicated staying in front. My wife and I and a couple of part time staff = 1, pump out normally a few hundred to a thousand products a week here, where often in these countries a person would often have less than 1/10 of that capacity. They in dollar terms are still in front EXCEPT they can NOT be branded MADE IN AUSTRALIA or USA etc. (marketing is a factor) The machinery and techniques I use thankfully often mean that the quality is higher and more consistent and that is something that my customers require. That rightly does not stop them trying the lesser cost alternatives at times but it is funny and pleasing somewhat when they embarrassingly show back up wanting me to try and fix the messed up products and get me back on board with them. In a world wide forum like this I think that would present a large challenge but within individual countries perhaps it could work. I look forward to your input as well and would like to know what machinery you have at present and what type of products you are thinking of producing. If you do not already follow me here do so as I tend to focus my posts in this direction. No it is a but join.The rubber part is cut as neat and square as possible the a drop of super glue does that part. Scarfing would make the join less flexable to the tight bends in the pulley. It can be stretched out to pull the cover back over and glued and trimmed. This helps to minimise the swell of the overlap. I will do a video and post sometime soon. Finding the market I found very early on is fairly simple really. "what market is there for what I'm making" I think is the wrong way in business to think as what I found works is take some product to the potential buyers and ask them what they would buy. I started off making some purses I (I) thought were great in design and eventually had to accept that the direction my credit card slots would sell better in the upright direction rather than the other direction. Also found that they wanted thinner material lining in the pockets. Many of these designs are still selling better many years later than most of the customers own designs they pay me to put into production. Do your homework well and do not listen to only 1 or 2 customers ideas before committing... make up prototypes and get orders for them first. After that investing in equipment is really a no brainer I will have a look into that idea @Chain Thanks. All too true .... Thanks for the compliments. They can make it worth doing.

Thanks to you all that have given me your feed back on this question. I am sorry to say that the interest level is less than I expected. That's alright and I'm glad I asked before I blew too much time and effort and $$$ into this idea. Doing your homework always pays off. Given the amount of people that follow me here on L.W. and that my posts don't pretend to represent myself as anything other than a leather goods manufacturer, I mistakenly thought that there would be more people interested in gaining the experience of how to do what I do. I would have loved to know all of the techniques I've developed over the years when I was a lot younger and I realise that experience would have saved me many thousands $$$ in mistakes and slow processing and as well have made many $$$$ more into my pocket instead. I have to admit when I found L.W. I was looking for more of a manufacturing related forum hoping to swap notes and techniques etc but could not find it then or now either. I guess some here like @Matt Sare looking for similar but for whatever the reason very few others here are. Thank you @Gymnast for your kind offer of help and I would especially like to thank @JLSleather for articulating so well your thoughts that in so many ways correspond with my own. Billybop, Chrisach and Toxo Thanks for your comments and I will do my best when time allows to try and get a few vids done here and there. For now I think my next one will be how to do a join in shock cord to make a pulley belt. Try and find out how to do that on you tube . My edging machine belt finally threw it in last week My emergency replacement (2mm shock cord with a knot) Here I have stretched out some 4mm cord and peeled it back and stuck the rubber together Success at last and so far it shows good and strong after a couple of full days in use. Next one should look better I reckon.

Yeah the principles are mostly the same normally but I would be focusing more on the more average cow leathers I think. In answer to your question above I am talking about production type videos. In one of my earlier posts I made a video that was aimed at showing off a line up device that I made and use everyday when making up wallets,purses and bags and a whole lot of other things. In this video you can see some techniques in action that allow me to make up wallets like these in a 30 to 45 minute time frame start to finish. The post I am referring to - What I see often is cut down videos that if you were to follow them would take you over a day to make. In one case yesterday I see a plain leather drink coaster that has been hand stitched and for sale at over $83 au. Although some would pay to see a video on how he does this I argue that none of this is real world. To quote myself above "how to make leather goods Quickly and Efficiently and also with some basic manufacturing machinery" is what I am talking about. 99.9% of the market are not going to buy this product at that price and if you could make a comparable product (not hand stitched) in 5 minutes or less and sell it at a more marketable price why would you not do that? I am NOT saying that every thing has to be made cheap and sold cheap either but if you are crazy enough to think a drink coaster that is hand stitched is going to outlast a coaster that is machine stitched and that is why it is worth paying over 10 times the difference in price then I have to say my video's are not for you. Most of my work is based on making leather goods profitably as I can and I don't see that I would have time to teach anybody how to do it any other way. This is a picture of a wallet out of my every day range that takes 30 to 45 minutes to make.

How many people here want to make money making leather goods? How many people here would like to see a range of video’s on How to make leather goods .......Profitably? I’ve seen plenty that show me how to make stuff unprofitably so I do stress the word Profitably. To be clear as I can, what I am saying is that the videos would be along the line of how to make leather goods Quickly and Efficiently and also with some basic manufacturing machinery. I ask you these questions as I would like to know what sort of a market there would be in making and selling in some form or another, video’s and associated patterns and supplies etc. Not much point making detailed video’s and stuff if there is no interest .......is there??? For anyone here that does not know the type of products I produce please check my website link – https://wildharry.com.au/ And another place that would give you some more would be here by visiting my profile page and looking through the “about me” section which shows a long list of tutorial type posts of things I make. If you are interested please say so.....

Hello @Sangrati, I am curious as to why you are looking so hard at the hand stitching methods given that you wording in your profile says " Wallets - Interested in learning about:Machines and sewing materials" Would you not be better learning on a sewing machine? I mostly work on crocodile leather goods and I rarely see any need to do the way slower hand stitching methods. I have very little to show on how I make wallets but some can be seen in this video - I think if you want to have a look in my profile, in the about me section you can find some more information about how to make this line up machine if that is of interest to you.

Good move and congratulations. You might be needing 3 pieces of pipe maybe 3' long x1 1/2" or 2" dia and a crow bar. They are really heavy and hard to move around. Watch for the oil reservoir and any spillage.