Upgrade: Ashland Leather Card Wallet

Ashland Leather was recently purchasing some Chromexcel for their front pocket wallet and it seemed like the perfect way to use up some of the harder to find Shell Cordovan colors I’ve been hoarding.  There’s only a few of each in these colors.  There are some other options available directly from Ashland Leather, but I’ll be selling these pictured.  These are $115 each and will ship for free via UPS ground to anywhere in the US.  To order, please visit http://www.Horween.com and call the factory – please ask for Nick and have your Visa or MasterCard ready.  You can also email to nick(at)horween.com.

From left to right – Dark Cognac, Natural, Color #2, Color #4, Color #8, Intense Blue, Dark Green, Black, and Natural Chromexcel.

All of the wallets in the above picture are Shell Cordovan, with the exception of the Natural Chromexcel wallet, which is available from Ashland Leather directly.

Back to Bologna

Next week we’ll be headed back to Bologna to attend Lineapelle.  We go over every October to show what we’ve been working on over the past year.  We’ll be in Hall 22, at our agents booth (Brizzi Agenzie).

In the past we’ve been able to catch up with customers and friends alike.  This year, we will sadly miss seeing our friend, the artisan, Stefano Bemer, who passed away earlier this year.

Boondockers

During the the first half of the 1940’s our factory was busy doing what many factories in the U.S. were doing – supplying goods and materials for use by our troops.  For us, that quite obviously meant leather.  We supplied two main leather types during this time; Mechanical leather and Chromexcel.

Mechanical leather is a specialized, dense, and extremely durable tannage utilized to make hydraulic and pneumatic seals and packings.  C.W. Marsh is one of our oldest customers, and we supplied them (and other manufacturers) with leather that was used for many applications, including vehicles.  While “leather is better,” this industry has largely moved into the realm of synthetics.

Photo by Ralph Morse – Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Vans x Horween

A huge thanks to Vans for taking the time to visit us and for putting together a great collection.

Through the Lens

All images by me, except for the last one by our friend Katie.

 

Thank You.

All of us at Horween Leather want to take a moment to say a sincere thanks to our CFO, Tom Culliton.  Tom retired last week after 47 years with the company.  Tom worked with four of the five generations of Horweens beginning with Arnold Horween in 1965.

It’s uncommon enough in this day for someone to work at one place for such a long time.  It is even more rare to do so at such a high level of professionalism and skill.

Thanks from all of us.  Enjoy the next chapter – you will be missed.

Stefano B.

Back in October, before we visited Lineapelle, we were able to make a quick stopover in Florence.  We walked.  A lot.

For at least part of the day, we actually knew where we were going, and that was to visit the shops owned and operated by Stefano Bemer.

Essex and Dublin

One of the challenges for us as tanners is to keep coming up with “new” leathers.  When we’re developing a leather it is usually because there is a customer that is asking for something specific.  Typically, the resulting leather ends up being a variation of an existing leather that has been designed and tanned to meet certain aesthetic and performance characteristics.  These demands change all the time and range widely – a leather needs to change to be waterproof, cementable, breathable, stronger, burnishable, softer, firmer, shinier, duller – the list goes on and the combinations are endless.

721 LTD

Through the Lens

Photos by Katie Hovland