5Th Business traceable leather Products for Farms
Your hard work…
shouldn’t go in the trash.
Do you hate throwing away the hides from your cows? Or worse, do you have to pay to get rid of them? Do you wish there was a better way?
This is the frustration felt by small to medium sized farms all across the US.
If you have 5 cow hides and $3000 to invest, we have a vision for you. We can send you leather and leather goods made from your farm’s hides.
We would be honored to be part of your farm’s story. By providing your farm with high quality leather goods made from your own hides and a platform to tell your story, we know we can bring your farm to center stage.
As an industry transforming new program, we understand that you must have a lot of questions on everything from how to prepare your hides to picking out your leather goods. That’s why we have made this process as simple as possible. By purchasing one of these packages you are paying a down payment and securing your farms spot in one of our traceable batches. We will have your hides turned into leather goods. Once we have your farms reservation, a member of our staff will contact you to walk you through your options, answer any questions and schedule a time for your hides to arrive.
We want you to succeed and become a return customer, so we have been working hard to make sure that you find value in this program. And, we will walk with you through this process each step of the way. Since exact product yield is dependent on the size of your hides and how well they are butchered and preserved, we have calculated a return on investment (ROI) based on average square footage, pattern sizes, and estimated retail prices. This means that we can not tell you up front how many of each product you will be able to expect, but we are confident that your farm will receive enough goods to make at least a 20% ROI after selling all of the leather goods. Leather goods are shelf stable and can be stored safely until they are sold. Making these an ideal product to add to your farms offerings.
The fine print: The total price of your load is determined by the amount of products and/or leather you wish to receive back. Our vision is for you to receive some goods and one side, one half hide, of leather for $3000 total.
The quality of the leather is subject to the quality of the raw hide. If your cow has a scar, your leather will too.
And, this is the big one: Hides that arrive late and miss their tanning date will forfeit the deposit unless we can find another farm that is able to take your place in the load last minute. When you choose a batch date, you lock in your spot and once it is full, together, you allow us to move forward with that whole load.
Visiting a friend at a partner farm.
Traceable hides after being split.
“Pergamena’s family tannery, an innovative cost sharing model, and 5th’s Traceable platform allow us to lower costs and solve many problems that intentional farms and makers have run into when working to produce traceable goods since the industrial revolution began.”
How Does It All Work?
A farmer sends in FIVE (5) cows. Pergamena returns their own hides crafted into leather and leather goods for the farm to sell.
Here’s the nitty gritty: Each farm is responsible for collecting, salting and delivering the hides to Pergamena. Pergamena marks each hide with the farm code and divides each cow into two (2) sides, yielding a grand total of 10 cow sides per farm. (When you think “Side”, think “Half-O-Hide.”) From here on, the process deals with cow sides, with each cow side being around 17-20 square feet in area. After the tasks of tanning, dying and finishing, the leather is done; your farm's material is sent along four paths.
Farm Traceable Products. Some of your sides are sent to be made into shelf stable products for you to sell. Pergamena offers 8 products options. The potential ROI for each product is listed. Additional products are created from material like leather splits and offcuts that typically are wasted in mass production. This also adds to your ROI. We expect to deliver at least a 20% ROI though we cannot guarantee it, of course.
“20sq ft challenge.” Each farm will get one side of leather returned to them for them to sell as leather or to use for our 20 square foot challenge. We partner with amazing artists (and we’re always looking for more) who have the creative vision to guide you in the creation of a unique product made especially for you. Farmers can pick an artist or project from our maker’s database. This connects small farmers and small makers to create unique items, sentimental projects or even explore new product lines to collaborate on. Additional cost is involved and paid directly to the artist.
Our Farm Traceable Product Maker. Some sides of traceable leather are given to our local product maker. This helps to offset the cost of having goods created by a trusted source.
Intentional Makers. Pergamena then offers some of your sides (with a certificate of authenticity along with the bio of your farm) to makers, which allows makers to collaborate with farmers to tell the true story from beginning to bag. These additional sales significantly lower the cost that you pay to have material tanned and products made. A portion of these sales are sent back to the farmer. This means we are incentivized to sell your hides, and you are rewarded when your hides sell.
The Journey Starts Here
At Pergamena we are here to help turn your farm’s hides into leather goods that not only add to your bottom line but tell your farm’s story. Veg tanning and crafting high quality goods is not cheap but using a cost sharing method, we can help break the barriers for small batch production.
5th Business Five Cows: (offered in multiples of 5 up to 40)
Four (4) cow sides worth of the products of your choice.
One (1) side worth of leather to use for the “20 sq ft Challenge" or to keep.
Certificate of authenticity, a QR code for customers to trace all products back to your farm, a farm listing on our website and access to all marketing materials on our website.
Total buy in: $3,000
Add More Merch: (offered in multiples of 5 up to 40)
Six (6) cow sides worth of the products of your choice.
Certificate of authenticity, a QR code for customers to trace all products back to your farm, a farm listing on our website and access to all marketing materials on our website.
Total buy in: $3,500
Leather Only: (offered in multiples of 5 up to 40)
Ten (10) Cow sides of leather.
Authenticated Farm ID code
Total buy in: $2,500
If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to reach out by clicking the “Custom Materials Consultation” button at the bottom of the page. —The Team at Pergamena