Much of our history is the history of economic and industrial behavior, the scale of industry, and the scope of trade.

Real politics are the tangible choices we make every day. Every place we go to work and everything we buy or don't is a vote for our vision of the future.  

Our bags are hand cut and hand sewn, our leather is made in America, and the price reflects these realities. We do everything in this shop with old and simple tools that we have the skills to maintain. People that work here are the kind of people that cook their own lunches, and often grow food for themselves. The same kind of people that once filled the shops that were our pride in the heyday of good craftsmanship. We are living this today.  You can bet our kitchens have sharp knives, we take care of the houses we live in and the communities in which we thrive. 

Keeping the dream of the small workshop is vital because self employed people and very small businesses have far more political and economic agency, they can do things because they are good or beautiful or right, not just because it is the only course that can continue to increase profits. Many companies can only make choices like a heavy freight truck with bad brakes. That's far too crude a tool for the kind of proud and elegant society we are working to build. 

We know that the value of the small shop is in the freedom it gives us and we show that the value of handcrafts is resilience in society. 

THE BULK OF OF THE VALUE OF HANDCRAFTS IS SOCIAL VALUE. 

Many of the tasks we do in the shop every day could be performed by machines, but then the people who come here to work would be machine operators. What do machine operators do when the industry employing them moves on? That story is told all too well in America's post industrial heartland.

The work we create shapes the kind of people we call neighbors. The people in my shop come here because they value learning more than income, they make it work, and they do that because they dream of doing something for themselves some day. The skills they come away with are both varied and primary, they can measure accurately, layout accurately, cut accurately, plan clearly, sharpen tools, make tools and jigs that are needed, think creatively, the skills they gain will be put to use every day of their lives, in their private as well as economic lives, they will make just as good carpenters and machinists as leatherworkers. This is the value of the workshop, it produces people who have the mind, the skills and the autonomous power do things. We are not just selling bags, we're selling the living reality of yankee ingenuity and a society of independent, creative, capable neighbors. 

My hope is that you can see what we are about here and that by supporting us you are helping to shape a more beautiful, autonomous and healthy society.