My wife just bought me a backpack from David King & Co. for my birthday. Gorgeous and has held up well so far with my last four business trips. Saddleback Leather is also quite good; several of my pals have bought wallets and other goods from the company. Again, as with any company, there will be duds. But one dud not a brand make.
Funny enough, the whole matter of machine-made versus handmade leather has come up for me in recent months because I have been replacing much of my old business accessories (document holder, backpack) with new goods. The shopping for this stuff has been a revelation.
There are plenty of high-quality players on Etsy. My watch roll is a modified tool roll bought from HBarNCraftworks, an outfit out of Montana; I merely pulled a few threads out to make it fit watches. But for every company like this, there are numerous makers who offer up "vegan leather" goods that aren't worth those high prices. People buy them because they want something that isn't machine made and a brand name (and thus, not special). But I'll take the machines and the brand names any day; at least they will stand by their work with warranties.
Funny enough, the whole matter of machine-made versus handmade leather has come up for me in recent months because I have been replacing much of my old business accessories (document holder, backpack) with new goods. The shopping for this stuff has been a revelation.
There are plenty of high-quality players on Etsy. My watch roll is a modified tool roll bought from HBarNCraftworks, an outfit out of Montana; I merely pulled a few threads out to make it fit watches. But for every company like this, there are numerous makers who offer up "vegan leather" goods that aren't worth those high prices. People buy them because they want something that isn't machine made and a brand name (and thus, not special). But I'll take the machines and the brand names any day; at least they will stand by their work with warranties.
