Prototyping, Part Two: This time, with Leather

We’re back again this week with more prototypes. But this time, we’re working in leather. The super-sexy, full-grain, new-car-smell kind of leather. And the results are pretty killer.

I’m really excited to be sharing with you a (small) glimpse into our plans, because they have been in the works for a long time. Expanding into insanely functional and durable leather goods has been a goal of ours from the very beginning - and we’re making exciting progress.

When I design new products, I like to understand the materials, manufacturing, and assembly as much as possible - and for leather, that means getting our hands dirty. We’ve been teaching ourselves the entire process from beginning to end - template design, hand-stitching, machine sewing, assembly, and finishing. For months, we’ve invested a large amount of time and funds into learning how to work with leather. 

And the investment is finally beginning to pay off. We’ve finalized some pretty killer designs for our first product line, made some (very rough!) prototypes, and formed solid leads on a manufacturing partner. If you read last week’s Field Notes, you know that this last part can be the most difficult. And for this project, that’s definitely turning out to be the case. We are scouring the country (and planet!) for the best leather artisans in existence - which is a harder task than you might imagine.

That said, you can be certain that whichever partner we choose, we will be using world class materials and assembly methods - things like full-grain leather, super sturdy hardware, and rock-solid stitching.  

So if you've made it all this way in the post, you're beginning to get angry at me for not divulging any details about what it is we're actually making. Well, that's for a future update. But let's be real - our first leather product isn't too hard to guess, is it?

Until Next Week,