Learn the Big Secret of Luxury Leather Brands to Save Big on Leather Shopping

Tanner Leatherstein explains how big brands scammed you into thinking that more expensive leather goods mean higher quality. In this video, we’ll answer the following questions:

• How does the leather industry scam you?
• How much does it really cost to create a wallet out of good-quality leather?
• How can you save thousands of dollars in leather goods that will last you for years?

Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments section below. We always read your comments! We’ll see you again next time. A quick reminder to be authentic, be leather-savvy!

Hi, dear leather enthusiast friends! I have a secret to share with you today that big leather brands don’t want you to know. You are being scammed by the big leather luxury brands. Here’s how.

They take super mediocre leather and make standardized goods out of them. They put them in their fancy stores. They line you up in front of their stores and make you wait for a while, and then they put a hefty price tag on it. Because their brand is associated with leather and luxury, they make you think that you’re getting great leather in that entire experience of scam. But what you get is super mediocre leather. Its soul was taken out of leather that you can’t even be satisfied with it because your senses don’t connect to that leather anymore. All that they’re doing is making it easy for themselves and making it profitable.

The greatest way to enjoy leather and save big money is to shop for small leather goods brands. Here’s a real example that I wanted to illustrate about the scam that’s been going on in the leather industry. Hopefully, this is going to help you understand, don’t fall for it again, and go shop for small craftsmen.

This wallet is a very typical quilted wallet that we make out of gorgeous goat leather (the leather you see right here in the video). This is a goatskin. It’s a beautiful piece. I’m a lifetime tanner and I love this leather. It’s a very labor-intense design. There’s a lot of work going into it, but it turns out into a beautiful product. Well, you might ask how much this costs.

First, let’s ask how much the big brands charge for these kinds of wallets. It starts from $300 to $500 and it goes up to thousands. And here is how much it actually costs to make it. Let’s see.

This leather is about seven square feet of goatskin and it’s about $3 a square foot. So, you can get this leather for about $21 to $22 apiece. Here’s the news. We can make two of these wallets out of this leather. So, the leather cost is about $10. And, accessories. There are a lot of zippers. We use the best zippers (YKK) and all that good stuff. The accessories, inserts, and support materials cost about $7. So, you came to $17. The labor on this one is about $20 because it really takes a lot of time by stitching a lot of lines on this quilted version design. But, it looks fancy. So that goes along with the complexity of the design. We came to $37.

On top of this, the packing, shipping, customs, and all that stuff. We land this wallet in the US at about $50 to $55. Now, our selling price is $110 which sustains us (our team of craftsmen and our family) to make a fair living. So, that’s all we need. We don’t need fancy stores. We don’t need a huge team. We don’t need shareowners. They’re expecting a big profit from us. We’re trying to make a living out of here.

Our biggest passion is to deliver to you this beautiful leather that your senses will recognize and have been craving for years because the market doesn’t have it. All the major brands that you trusted with your money actually took your money but didn’t deliver to you this leather that smells good, looks good, and touches well. So, here’s the biggest secret.

If you really want to enjoy leather in your leathercrafts and have the things that impress you by the touch and looks of it and if you want other people to give you compliments for it, this is only possible if you shop from small leathercrafts brands and small leather craftsmen because we love the experience of leather. We find this leather wherever it is in the world and we only work with it because it’s pleasure. We don’t touch the leather that big brands touch because it’s mediocre, cheap, and not satisfactory. It is the only thing that they can work with because at that mass scale, that’s the only thing that can be standardly produced and controlled for a profitable business.

So, if you’re into buying the status and you need the status that brands come with, then I can’t help you. That’s a totally different issue and it’s not even an issue that you can buy with money. But if you’re totally comfortable with who you are, if you don’t need to prove anything to others but you want to enjoy real stuff and things that you paid for only fair prices, and if you don't want to get ripped off, then small leather brands shopping is for you in the leather experience. Please remember this. You can save hundreds of thousands of dollars next time you’re shopping for leather goods.