Educating Customers About Leather..

[Itch]

Something that has been bothering me in a strange way but I am not loosing any sleep over it. I have been in business for myself and have learned a lot of valuable lessons for over 30 years. We have been in the leather business for a little over 10 years and I am still surprised at the amount of uneducated customers. With saying this I made a shoulder rig for a customer and he sent the rig back with a letter. He stated that the rig was nice and comfortable,fit his firearm and that he loved the workmanship but he would not use it because he claimed the finish was so nice that it was not Real Leather. Now I will tell you that for holsters we only use Wicket and Craig "and this is not meant to be an advertisement for them" but we have never used bonded leather.. So my point being I guess is that if this guy were to get on some gun forum or something that I do not use real leather I would be upset to say the least.. We did send an email back to him but never received a reply..

[LTC]

or he could've been talking out his butt because he had buyer's remorse and couldn't think of a real reason to return it

[JLSleather]

You'll find extremes on both ends. "Buyers" who think that 'cant' be real handmade goods because there's no flaws AND "leatherworkers" who insist that their handmade CRAP is valuable BECAUSE of its flaws.

In the end, I just do my own thing.

[DavidL]

Its more of a vintage/retro trend like ripped jeans over regular jeans. However having said that there are also just bad products that try to pass off as vintage. My take on it is if it was made on purpose to look vintage vs. a leather working trying to pass off below average work because of its flaws, that would be more "acceptable" and not a marketing ploy.

[chiefjason]

I made a gun belt for a guy, and I believe it was his first real leather belt. He loved it, but said it had a strong smell of leather to it. Uhm, yeah. A buddy of mine bought one and jokingly said the first thing he does in the morning is smell his belt. He loves it. Go figure.

On a somewhat related note, I used to deliver mid to high end leather furniture. People would absolutely freak out when they saw some of the leather imperfections and want to send it back. Never mind that they got told about them when they ordered it. Grain issues, scars, sometimes odd dye spots. Nothing super crazy, but part of the character of leather is that it's not mass produced and perfect. It's like distressed wood not veneer. And you can't really cherry pick your cuts when they are that big.

When I first started I tried to figure out how to make those perfect looking rigs. Finally came to the conclusion that some if it likely has to do with pressing those rigs and really evening out the look of the leather. I kind of prefer the look that's just a touch less perfect. I build it to be used, want it to be used, and don't want folks worrying about banging it up over time. I also don't charge prices that would lead them to believe they are not getting what they paid for. There's room for everyone so I don't knock the path others take. Unless it's obvious it's poorly delivered or borderline unsafe. And I still admire those rigs too.