SEE OUR NEW WEBSITE

This page will no longer be monitored.

Please click to see our NEW WEBSITE which includes our online store.

Happy 2018!

Happy 2018 to all our wonderful customers! We met so many of you in 2017 at the Pike Place Market and at Issaquah Salmon Days! We hope to see you both places again in 2018! We had fun doing some custom work for the rooms and the Rider restaurant at the beautiful, completely refurbished HOTEL THEODORE (formerly the Roosevelt) and continue to add to our online store. We also want to thank all our wonderful ONLINE STORE customers all over the United States!

Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook which is where we post our most recent up-to-date photos of our newest merchandise and any new designs!

Some changes for 2018:

1. We will be doing wholesale custom work all year long. Please provide resale number and business name/EIN with any inquiries. As of 2018, we are no longer doing retail custom orders.

2. We will be open 6 days a week at the Pike Place Market in January and February. Wednesdays - Mondays. Beginning in March, we will be open 7 days a week. Please always check our Facebook page prior to making a special trip as that's where we post any last-minute days off!

3. We have created a wait-list for out of stock items! If the item you want is sold out, please email shawn@stickmanleather.com to be invoiced when the item is back in stock! (Include your city/state with your inquiry).

Zippers!

Today's public service announcement is regarding the care and feeding of zippers! Whether it is a Stickman Leather bag, or any other bag - or suitcase - you own and love if you take care of it and use it properly you can save your zippers! How do you save your zippers? By carrying the appropriate amount of stuff (and weight) in your bag!

Want to know the surest way to blow out a zipper? The surest way is to consistently over-stuff your bag.If you regularly over-stuff a bag, it places stress on the zipper and/or things get caught in the zipper.

To replace a zipper typically requires replacing the entire panel on which the zipper is sewn. And, in some bags, the way it is constructed prevents any type of repair.

A good rule of thumb is this: if you always have to force the zipper to close around all the stuff in your bag, it's time for a larger bag!

End of public service announcement. Thanks for listening!

Small Batch

We are a small batch leather shop.

This means that all our bags are handcrafted in our 300 square foot shop in the Pacific NW. We have some leathers that we get (fairly) consistently, but, many of the hides we get are one of a kind. When building Mailbags or Lindy bags, Shawn can make about TWO bags out of one hide.

If Shawn finds an interesting hide, he buys it and then makes two bags. That's it. Once they're gone, they're gone!

Even our "standard" colors, can vary from dye lot to dye lot. For you knitters out there, you understand the need to get all your yarn from the same dye lot for a big project. Or for you woodworkers, you see how the same type of wood can take stain differently.

For that reason, we are continually updating our online store with new photos, as the colors change.

That is also the reason our quantities are limited at the Pike Place Market and in our online store.

As always, we thank all of our faithful customers who give good homes to our bags.

Let's Get Social!

FACEBOOK

We love to post pictures of you with your bags on our Facebook page. Feel free to share your pictures with us, too!

We also post in the morning on our Facebook page if we are not going to be at the Pike Place Market for the day. Typically, we're there every day of the week but, things happen. We recently had an elevator down (couldn't get our merchandise upstairs) and a fire under the viaduct (had to close early!) Checking our feed can (hopefully) save you from a drive to Seattle if we aren't there.

INSTAGRAM

Our new items and behind the scenes photos can be found on Instagram. Once in a while, we post pictures of our shop dogs! Ace the Husky is now 6 months old and getting bigger by the day! Or, we'll follow the adventures of the birds that build a nest right outside our shop in the woods! Usually Instagram is the first place to see a new item or our new colors!

LINKS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StickmanLeather/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stickmanleather/

Online store: https://squareup.com/store/stickmanleather

Online Store

I'm happy to announce that new for 2017 I have an online store. You can access my online store at: 

https://stickmanleather.square.site

Check back regularly! As always, my products can also be found nearly every day of the year at Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA.

Happy Spring!

Spring News for Stickman Leather:

• Stickman Leather can be found MOST days at Pike Place Market in Seattle, typically at the NORTH END of the Market (and sometimes outside on nice days). If there is something specific you are looking for, then it is best to call me (between 9am - 6pm, Pacific Time) 206-371-1477 to double check that someone will be there!
• I've been working on some new designs with my new shop assistant, Natalie. As always, the most up-to-date photos of my work can be found on my FACEBOOK page!
• Just a note (because I've been getting a lot of requests for custom wallets lately) I do NOT make custom wallets. You can click HERE to learn why!
• I do custom work, as time allows. This can be anything from creating a new bag for you to reconditioning/refurbishing an existing bag. I don't make clothing and I won't copy someone else's bag. My shop rates for custom work are currently $90/hour. Please contact me for a quote.

HAPPY 2016!

Happy 2016 to everyone! I was out in the shop bright and early on January 2nd, making bags, that's what I do.

As always, change is inevitable.

• I'm losing my shop assistant, Hillary, in April as she's going off to new adventures. I will be sad to see her go but happy for her, she's been a delight to work with.
• Postal rates have gone up, which means it'll cost you a dollar or two more if you order a bag and have it shipped. 
• I'm pleased with the new designs that I put out late last year, the Tahoma Bag and the Summit Bag. (Eventually, I'll have photos on this website, but for now you can see them on my Facebook page!) I think these bags are going to be permanent parts of the line in 2016. 
• I'm pleased that I am continuing my relationship with Seidel tanning out of Wisconsin they supply me with my custom color -Bark Passport- which is a deep, rich brown. 

I hope that 2016 finds all of my amazing customers happy and well!

HOLIDAY SHIPPING

Ho! Ho! Ho! Just a friendly reminder regarding shipping for holiday time!!

Orders have to be placed by 6pm FRIDAY DECEMBER 18th in order to guarantee shipping by Christmas.

And, as of today, December 14th, orders will be limited to stock on hand.

I am deep in production filling orders this week and making specific stock to send to Pike Place Market.

Kenneth and Courtney will be at the Market all week. I will be there Saturday, the 19th.

The quickest way to place an order this time of year is to CALL 206-371-1477.Emails and Facebook messages are typically the slowest way to reach me during this busy season.

Have a jolly holiday!

Happy 2015!

There aren't many days off at Stickman Leather. We took a few days off for Christmas and New Year and are back at it! You can see all my bags on the "Shop" tab -or see my products nearly every day of the week at one of Seattle's favorite landmarks: The Pike Place Market!

Who's Who?

(L to R: Kenneth, Hillary, Michele, Shawn, Courtney)

Stickman Leather, LLC is a very small business! You've got me, designing, sewing, and finishing. Then, there's Hillary who helps me in the shop (along with my kids, sometimes if they want to earn a little extra spending money!)

My wife, Michele, keeps up with the business end of things and answers emails, takes phone orders, ships bags, balances the checkbook and all that type of thing.

I go down to Pike Place Market most Saturdays during the year and when I'm not there, Kenneth or Courtney can be found representing Stickman Leather.

That's it. Five of us.

We thank you for your support when you buy a Stickman Leather bag you are keeping 5 people employed.

~Shawn

Shawn visiting Roger at the Hide House
in Napa, California

Every once in a while I take the family on a road trip that leads us to the Hide House in Napa, California. That's where I get most of my leather.

This year, as soon as the kids were out of school we loaded up in the Jeep and headed down to Napa to see Roger.

It was great to see Roger in person and to look at all the amazing and beautiful hides of leather that they stock.

I was able to get some gorgeous leather, I'm especially excited about some of the blue leather I got.

The pallet arrived yesterday and I'm excited to build bags out of all this gorgeous new leather!

Most of the summer there will be a Stickman Leather representative at the Pike Place Market. I'm typically there on Saturdays! Come by and say "hi"!

Top 3 Must-Haves in a Great Leather Bag

Whether you buy one of my bags, or buy a bag from another craftsperson, these are the three things to look for!

1. Top grain/full grain leather.

A quality bag is made of the best leather, drum dyed so the color won't bleed.

Some manufactured bags are made of leather scraps in a process similar to creating particle board. Honestly, one way to tell is price. If you're out shopping and a leather bag is VERY inexpensive, the leather is either urine-tanned (as gross as it sounds) or made of urethane-coated leather scraps.

2. Nylon Thread

Any other type of thread will either rot or break.

3. Solid cast hardware.

Check for seams. If a buckle or ring has a seam then it will pull apart with use.

For a later post, I'll talk about bags that are pieced together - tip, a bag is more durable, the fewer pieces it is made with! If your strap isn't one continuous piece, it's a dead giveaway.

Follow Me On Facebook

I'm on Facebook! I update that nearly every day! Waaay more often than I update this blog! So, follow me there. Today I have my first of random and arbitrary specials for my Facebook followers!! https://www.facebook.com/StickmanLeather

Happy November

November is when I kick it into high gear. This is the month when I stop doing any special orders and just focus on buying lovely small lots of leather and building unique, individual bags for the holidays.

I love getting those unique hides that I can only make one or two bags out of.

I'm also waiting on samples from a new leather line.

It's an exciting time of year and I love to see who ends up with my bags!

Happy Fall!

Work From Home Dad

I'm a work from home Dad. My wife and kids helped me out in the shop this summer, but, now that the kids are off to school, it's me and the wife in the shop! In between working, our daughter had foot surgery and has needed rides to school and help getting to her first class! So, between trips to the doctor, rides to school, making school lunches, curriculum nights and ALL that goes with being a work-from-home-dad; I'm making bags!! This is my busiest time of year as I'm doing my best to build inventory so there's a lot of merchandise for the holidays! If you want a bag for a gift (or you want to buy a bag for a gift) please remember that I buy SMALL lots of leather. If you see a bag you adore, I might not always be able to get that exact leather again. I know that some customers think I'm just trying to make a sale fast when I say that. Then, they come back in a few hours and the bag they loved is gone. And I cannot get any more of that particular leather. It happens nearly EVERY day that I am selling at the market. Moral of the story? If you love it. Buy it. Set it aside for the holidays . . . just trying to make your dreams come true. One bag at a time!

One Guy, Making Bags

I'm just one guy, making bags and selling them at Pike Place Market. In order to keep up, I have to keep things rolling through the shop. I do this by making more than one bag at a time. The other day, it was red Michele Bags. They look kind of cool sitting on my workbench.

Red Leather, Yellow Leather

Okay, only red leather!! Valentine's Day is coming and I'm bringing a bunch of smaller red bags down to Pike Place Market tomorrow! Pictured at left are the Michele Bag, Bucket Bag and Traveler Bag. Some of the bags have floral leather, too. If you aren't in the Seattle area, remember, you can always call 206-371-1477 to order.

A New World

I'm venturing into online sales, I've posted my first item for sale on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/StickmanLeather