{"id":1281,"date":"2015-06-18T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-08-03T16:43:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T16:43:12","slug":"makers-monday-leather-works-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/makers-monday-leather-works-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"Makers Monday With Leather Works Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent and Lee Begnaud are the husband and wife duo behind Leather Works Minnesota<\/a>. In honor of the National Day of Making (today), and in the spirit of our Makers Monday interview series, we asked them six questions about their products and what it means to be an American Maker. Check out Shinola\u2019s Double Wrap Bracelet made by Leather Works Minnesota, and discover more Makers on the Makers Monday website<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

” class=”wysiwyg-break drupal-content” src=”\/sites\/all\/modules\/wysiwyg\/plugins\/break\/images\/spacer.gif” title=”<--break-->“>What is it you make, and what should people know about your products?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re just interested in being happy. We like the small family business atmosphere where we all know each other and get along really well. We love how the European companies do it where it\u2019s the same people who\u2019ve been running a family business for a couple hundred years. It doesn\u2019t need to become this massive corporation. Here in America we sort of think \u201cbigger, bigger, bigger,\u201d or \u201cmore, more, more.\u201d We find that people get unhappy really fast when they try to do too much but we\u2019re pretty happy with where we are. <\/p>\n

Our focus is on small leather goods. Personally, I don\u2019t like fabrics in wallets. That\u2019s usually the first thing that wears out. I\u2019m not saying we\u2019ll never put a fabric in a wallet but a lot of times, it\u2019ll look really nice when you buy it and six months later it\u2019s falling apart. We definitely don\u2019t want to be a part of that group.<\/span><\/p>\n

We typically use a heavier leather on our products than you usually get out of the store. My wife has a saying she coined: \u2018with our stuff, the ugliest it will look is the day you buy it because the more you use it the better it gets.\u2019 You know, with most products it\u2019s the other way around.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important we tell our customers where get our leather from. We get all of our leather from the Red Wing Shoe Tannery and people love the fact that the leather is made in the same place and some of it is the exact same leather that they are already wearing in their boots. <\/p>\n

When did you commit to making your products in America and why did you choose to do it here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, with the first leather shop that I worked for, it was a very healthy company; it was doubling every three years and our last year we were probably doing $12 million. So it was doing well, everybody was happy, but when the new owners bought it they had investors and of course they just wanted more money. So they took this American company that was perfectly healthy and took it to China so they could get more money.<\/p>\n

So when that happened, I told Lee, \u2018I\u2019m going to bring it back to America, I\u2019m going to start my own!\u2019 So it was me and my old $300 sewing machine out in the garage sewing. Now we have four people that work for us and I\u2019m so happy with the size. I don\u2019t really have any dreams to grow; we could probably double if we wanted to, but I don\u2019t want to. We\u2019ll see what the future hold but I think to control the quality and the relationships we have with each other, I like the way it is.<\/p>\n

Where is your business located, and what makes your town uniquely American?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re in St. Paul, Minnesota. It\u2019s kind of a low-key, laid back area that has just gotten more and more popular over the last few years. They just revitalized the 1920s Union Depot Station so they are running trains again. They put in a light rail system now.  They also just built the new Saint\u2019s stadium and that\u2019s like an AA size stadium. It\u2019s just a few blocks over from us here, it\u2019s beautiful.<\/p>\n

Between that, the new restaurants and all the artists, it\u2019s pretty good.  All the buildings are filled with artists, they are just artists\u2019 lofts; you have to be an artist to live here or work here. Or you have to pretend to be one. <\/p>\n

What got you started, and what was the first thing you remember making?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in the late 1970s, a friend of mine from high school had a great leather shop just up the street from here. I used to work for him and it was just he and I. He was a really good businessman; he turned it into a multimillion-dollar corporation and we had about 50 employees. In \u201897 he sold the company and I was managing the manufacturing at the time. In \u201899 the new owners took all of the manufacturing and went offshore with it, taking it all to China. <\/p>\n

At that time I had a little empty garage in our backyard and we turned that into our shop. I just started making handbags and wallets and stuff. About 4 years ago, the men\u2019s products really caught on so since then and because of social media, it\u2019s been growing ever since. It\u2019s been everywhere!<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re not busy at work, where might we find you? What do you like to do with your spare time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exploring Lowertown, definitely! They have a long-standing farmer\u2019s market that\u2019s right across the street from us that\u2019s been going on for years on the weekends. It\u2019s a really great place to be. That\u2019s Lee\u2019s happy place: the farmer\u2019s market. <\/p>\n

Lowertown is really the art district of St. Paul. We\u2019re in our third year here but since 1999 we\u2019ve been working out of our backyard. There are a lot of great musicians down here and all that so it\u2019s just a really happening place.<\/p>\n

Are there other brands and makers that inspire you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like Tanner Goods, and there\u2019s this guy from Japan and his business is called Dulles Club; I want to go work for that guy. It\u2019s a one-man show. He makes handmade, leather doctor bags and different custom cases and I\u2019ve never seen finer work than what he\u2019s doing! He even makes the hardware for his stuff like the brass for the handle. It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

Just imagine like the most amazing, most creative piece of sushi, and that\u2019s what he does with leather. Every stitch, every\u2026 every piece is just amazing. He makes his own tools that he makes the leather with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kent and Lee Begnaud are the husband and wife duo behind Leather Works Minnesota. In honor of the National Day of Making (today), and in the spirit of our Makers Monday interview series, we asked them six questions about their products and what it means to be an American Maker. Check out Shinola\u2019s Double Wrap Bracelet […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[9,7],"yoast_head":"\nMakers Monday With Leather Works Minnesota - Our Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/makers-monday-leather-works-minnesota\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Makers Monday With Leather Works Minnesota - Our Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kent and Lee Begnaud are the husband and wife duo behind Leather Works Minnesota. 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