Our "Dirty Job"

Do we have a dirty job? Mike Rowe definitely thought we did, so much so we were featured twice on Dirty Jobs!

Leather tanning and parchment making have always been dirty, smelly, and labor-intensive jobs. While modern technology has definitely helped speed things along, they have not found a way to make our tannery smell like roses (Bet you’re glad you can’t smell it right now). Having said that, we knew what we were getting into, and we do it because we recognize the critical role we play.

Without tanneries, hides go to waste. Literally wasted. The alternative to leather is synthetic materials that, while cheaper, are extremely polluting to produce and do not have the life span that leather or parchment does. These cheaper materials end up in a landfill because they fall apart after a few years of use and pollute the ground for a second time. Admittedly, I just laid out a gross oversimplification of a much larger picture. While we love diving down that rabbit hole and encourage you to do the same, the purpose of this blog is to talk about why we love our dirty job and why the “ecosystem” we are a part of is the better option. 

What exactly is the “ecosystem” we are a part of? Great question! Our “ecosystem” creates a low environmental impact material, provides additional revenue streams for farms and meat processors, creates jobs at every step, makes high-quality materials available to designers, and then those materials are turned into high-quality goods that will last a customer a lifetime. Our ecosystem is sustained by responsible people making choices that take into consideration the downstream effects of their actions. We view ourselves as the connection point between the farmers and the designers. These two groups have historically been siloed off from each other, but it is our great pleasure to be able to connect the two.  

There are not many tanneries left in the USA, and globally there is a real issue with the practices of some tanneries, click to read more about this topic. Our goal is to provide another option to the mass-produced materials that it is better just to not ask questions about; we welcome the questions. Are we perfect? Absolutely not! But we work every day to become better, and that is why we are PROUD of our Dirty Job!