I want to get into leather holster making

[Cumberland Highpower]

8 hours ago, AEBL said:

Nobody said this already, so here goes: Want to make a small fortune selling holsters? ... Start out with a large fortune first.

I've just made a terrible one for a friend, so, now I am going to re-make it ... 

I'd have to agree with that!

25 years ago I didn't have a choice, and didn't see it that way.  I made a living making holsters for over a decade, and looking back, was pretty good money.   I started with $200 and a 90 day loan against my 10 year old VW Golf (bought a stitcher).   I made ALLOT of holsters of all types, mainly on contract. 

I rarely make holsters now and keep looking for something that just requires pushing a big red button. CNC, etc! LOL.

Edited Friday at 12:31 PM by Cumberland Highpower

[AEBL]

I have friends that make holsters, and I don't want to turn people off of making them, but it is a lot more work than someone might think. Watching the pros on YouTube gives the uninitiated the impression that it is "cut some stuff, glue it together, stitch it, sell it" ... but there is a steep learning curve, and customers don't want to pay for your mistakes.

I think a lot of us here got into the business because we wanted to save money on buying stuff, or nobody made what we wanted. I think I've heard stories like this here all over the forum: "Some guy was charging $$ for this thing I wanted. I thought I could make it cheaper/easier/better, so now, years into it, and $$$$ into it, I have a deeper respect for what that original person was doing and charging." Yet, I'm still happy I took the plunge and got into it, nice people here - and they're always glad to help!

[Cumberland Highpower]

23 hours ago, AEBL said:

I have friends that make holsters, and I don't want to turn people off of making them, but it is a lot more work than someone might think. Watching the pros on YouTube gives the uninitiated the impression that it is "cut some stuff, glue it together, stitch it, sell it" ... but there is a steep learning curve, and customers don't want to pay for your mistakes.

I think a lot of us here got into the business because we wanted to save money on buying stuff, or nobody made what we wanted. I think I've heard stories like this here all over the forum: "Some guy was charging $$ for this thing I wanted. I thought I could make it cheaper/easier/better, so now, years into it, and $$$$ into it, I have a deeper respect for what that original person was doing and charging." Yet, I'm still happy I took the plunge and got into it, nice people here - and they're always glad to help!

Most of those are pretty valid and on the money points.    I got into leatherworking mainly as you said I felt like it was an easy money maker and I wanted a few things.  There was a learning curve, but a holster isn't the RD-180.   I'd say the learning curve for myself was about a week of full time experimenting and some fine tune skill honing over a year or so.

I think the big mistake that newcomers make is that they want to make "Custom" holsters, one customer at a time.    There's no money in that.  Maybe pocket money, but it's allot of frustration and annoyance and it's almost impossible to read someone else's mind 100%. The customer ends up never being fully happy.  There are some pretty successful custom makers out there, but they're a rarity and a good few of them live on some kind of backup income like SS, Army Pension/VA Disability, Oil Royalties, etc.

My approach was to make a few lines of holsters that were inspired by big name makers or of my own design and look for retailers who would sell them under their name.  If they sold they sold, if not, not.  Cheap models always sold the best, about 10x better.  

 

Edited Saturday at 01:47 PM by Cumberland Highpower