Your 101 Guide on
HOW TO BUY LEATHER
If you are an entrepreneur, a group of lads who talked about a million dollar income at a Chai Dhabba last night, thinking about making your own leather brand and selling it at Amazon, Ebay or your own ecommerce website, this is your 101 guide to buying leather.
First Option :
Don't Buy Leather at all !
Making leather products is not similar to making bespoke clothes. It's different. You won't find a leather worker like a tailor in a commercial market. You might find a mochi, a cobbler but he isn't trained to make things. He's trained to repair things that too just to barely keep your products stay functional. He ain't gonna give you his time coz he's busy selling Niswaar. Yes , that's his prime business now. Repair jobs and polishing is not something that he depends on.
Back to the core issue ahem..
Making leather products ( shoes, bags specially ) is like making a house. That's my own understanding. You can't make a house without a sketched design, which an architect makes but he alone can not construct a house. You need a contractor too.
Most people think that leather products can be made by any leather craftsman.
A typical leather craftsman is not a trained designer. Of course he does understands the technical side of making things, but he's not a design centric person generally, unless he has worked for design centric brands for a good number of years. Think of a contractor who built houses under guidance of an architect, but he cannot act like an architect ( a designer ) unless he's got that knack or spent several years working under him.
So you need to have a designer and a leather craftsman first in order to know what kind of leather you require.
If you have successfully identified a these two individuals, congratulations. You've cracked the main part of your supply chain. Let's help you find the best leather for your project. Because now we go straight into the inventory shelf and pull a few bundles that would solve your problem.
Know your application , Have your design in hand , Know your colors, Have a craftsman
"You're ready to become a million dollar leather dude "
Second Option : Simply go to Zainab Market or Panorama Center
OR any wholesale leather market , or find leather goods in ( your city ) on Tiktok, YouTube and you'll find tens of hundreds of leather goods sellers from Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot, Multan and various cities. Ask them for ready made products they are selling and list it on your website. Once you start finding customers, you may then start thinking about going to the option 1 route.
Why am I ranting ?
Because we think every leather worker, everyone who works with leather has a kind of magic wand that would create artisan level bespoke products like we see on instagram reels, like LV, Dior, Chanel and Ferragamo. Dude , they have a team of individuals who don't start producing any design right away, but carefully design, prototype and test a product before launching in the market. Hundreds of hours are spent making a new bag or a jacket before it is released at a Fashion Week.
Once you've successfully identified and teamed up with the right set of individuals, now it's time for you to understand the basics about skins, sizes and their finishes.
THE LEATHER DUDE™ ACADEMY
Size Chart
Know what part of Leather you want
Understand Natural Ebellishments
Discover how individual piece is different from others
Discover Finishing Types
Ask about specific finishes for Shoes, Upholstery, Bags and Apparels
Learn about feel and thickness
Softnesss, Sturdiness and overall feel is important before final decision
That's all folks !
Leather Jackets and Furniture are relatively easy to source from the makers. Usually the patterns are not much difficult ( unless you're obsessed with fitting ) and it's mostly the appliques, embellishments ( for apparels ) that you can intervene with and the maker understands your thing and furniture, most upholstery dudes around know how to wrap leather around the foam. The structure however needs design thinking again and I am assuming that your are either a designer yourself or have someone design your structures before you are ready to buy leather for your interior project.
