Leather Man Limited's administrative offices are in Essex, Connecticut - a town famous for its pristine captain's homes. And also in Essex, in the same building, is our place of manufacture. The notion that one might actually make their own product is startling. This is the age of outsourcing. For heaven's sake - don't do the work yourself, have someone else do it for you. Find a contractor and then negotiate a low price.

We couldn't agree less. Having our own factory gives us an advantage. The people marketing our products are pretty much the same ones who manufacture them. There is no cross purpose; i.e.; a manufacturer trying to deliver the cheapest or easiest-to-make product vs. marketer trying to get the best product at the lowest price. We can also be quite unbiased about what type of belt we think a customer would have the best luck with. After all, we don't have a single finished belt in our factory. Nowhere is there a pile of belts that we have been trying to dump. We will make whatever you want. Amazingly we deliver most of our orders within two to four weeks. It isn't easy, but after 30 years we are getting better. Our goal is to provide you with belts that will sell the quickest. This way, you will reorder.

We also believe having our own factory gives us control. In relationships control is a bad word. In manufacturing it is a great word. We control the quality of our leather, our brass, our web and most importantly our workmanship. We also control what we make and when. This control has lead us to a return rate (due to product defects) that approaches zero.

Another advantage of this setup is that we are able to make custom product in fairly small runs. Many of our clients have custom woven ribbons, embroidery or leather stamp dies in inventory at Leather Man. These ribbons and dies are the property of our customers. When requested, we will make hats, bags, belts and whatever else using their designs. For many customers we have been doing this for over 20 years. Try doing that in a factory in Guandong Province.

We may be a business dinosaur - a small American manufacturer, with our own administrative staff, our own sales force, and our own factory. It suits us just fine and we are proud of our most important product - satisfied customers.

THERE REALLY WAS A LEATHER MAN

He squeaked when he walked. And that is the only noise he made. Never a peep escaped his lips, but the sixty pounds of leather he wore made a sound that announced his arrival.

This was his way for 35 years. During that period he made a loop every thirty-four days. West along the Connecticut shore to the Hudson River, north to Sing Sing, east to Hartford and then south along the Connecticut River - passing through Essex on his route. Quiet and right on schedule, he was never late with the exception of the Blizzard of 1887. Newspapers of the day, in an effort to describe the severity of the storm, placed emphasis on the fact that it was so severe; that even the Leather Man was delayed. He was found frozen and taken to Hartford Hospital to thaw out. Upon regaining his strength, he broke out and continued his quest.

No one is sure what sent him off on this strange journey. One report has it that he was born in France, married the boss's daughter and was sent to America to purchase leather. Another version has it that there was a woman, a rage, a gun and a death. Oddly enough no one is even sure what his name was. He never spoke. By all reports he was kind, decent and punctual to the second - schools were let out to watch him pass by. He never responded to the taunts of the older kids and was known to give little bits of leather to the younger ones.

Locals on his circuit would always have a meal ready and tried to look after him as best they could. His nights were spent in caves in the woods. Eventually in 1903 he became ill and died. He was buried in Ossining, New York (a.k.a Sing Sing) in a pauper's grave. At the time of his death he was a household name. All the local papers as well as the New York Herald reported his demise. Even politicians felt compelled to comment on his passing.

Today, at Leather Man Limited, we still manufacture leather products right in the place where the Leather Man quietly trod. Many of the Leather Man employees spent time in their childhood visiting the Leather Man's caves and learning of his strange quest. He probably would have little use for our products, but he might respect our individualism. We have stubbornly clung to the notion that if you build a good product, charge a fair price and don't treat the customer like a saphead - you just might stay in business.