{"id":1383,"date":"2015-07-13T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-08-03T16:43:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T16:43:04","slug":"new-face-shinola-leather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Face of Shinola Leather"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of Men\u2019s Fashion Week, and Shinola\u2019s inaugural collection by co-Design Directors of leather accessories, Richard Lambertson and John Truex; we\u2019re bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes behind Shinola\u2019s handcrafted leather. <\/em><\/p>\n

For our Fall 2015 collection, the pair expands on Shinola\u2019s classic silhouettes and delivers the same modern attitude and timeless style as our watches and bicycles. Designed and developed entirely at our Detroit studio, every piece in the Shinola Leather Collection is handcrafted and built to last a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s appropriate that in the building that once housed a General Motors\u2019 design center, Shinola\u2019s light-filled studio floor is the stage for both design and production under one roof. \u201cEstablishing an American leather company in the same building where Shinola has built its watch factory is exciting,\u201d says Richard Lambertson. \u201cJohn and I have worked for European brands as well as our own, and we know what it takes to create something from scratch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOur customers are telling us they want our approach applied to other accessories,\u201d Jen Guarino, Head of Leather Production, adds. \u201cPeople have been asking for handbags, for example, and we\u2019ve been wanting to do it\u2014and do it right.\u201d The ever-expanding production floor now houses more people, more desks and more machines. <\/p>\n

One of the leather team founders and incoming leather quality inspector, Damond Love, remembers the beginnings of his department, \u201cI put together all the chairs and tables on this floor when there was nothing here. It\u2019s been incredible to see how far we could take it.\u201d Born and raised in Detroit, Damond worked as an automotive supplier for 15 years until he was let go. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I would get another good job in Detroit. Now I tell people I work at Shinola, and their reactions are amazing. Shinola\u2019s coming to Detroit, I can honestly say changed my life and a lot of other people\u2019s lives too. Working here feels like you\u2019re making a difference.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Damond is responsible for checking every piece of leather that makes its way down the production line. \u201cI inspect all incoming material\u2014I check it and I re-measure it to make sure all the sizes are accurate. A few months ago, Shinola sent me to a leather authentication class at the University of Cincinnati, so I\u2019ve learned a lot. I pretty much know everything there is to know about leather!\u201d <\/span>Small accessories are next, starting with passport holders; for now the team is focusing on watch straps. \u201cWorking here made me view watches differently,\u201d Damond laughs. \u201cFor the average watch, there are seven components for the strap alone, not including the stitching and buckles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wendy Blackwell, an artisan for the company, explains, \u201cI used to do the edge painting on the straps to hide all the inner workings and make it look smooth. I had perfected it to where you couldn\u2019t tell where one piece started and another stopped. I recently switched to hand assembly, where I\u2019m making strap tongues and adding buckles. Making a leather watchstrap is a detailed process that requires a great deal of precision. There are so many small pieces that all need to fit perfectly together. On my fourth month here, I went to New York to accept an Accessories Council Award on behalf of Shinola,\u201d she continues. \u201cThey made me a leather clutch bag, and Kerry Washington said hello to me! That was my first time in New York and my first time on a plane. At the end of the speech, I added my own line. I said, \u2018Dreams really do come true, and when they do, they\u2019re better than you can imagine.\u2019\u201d Wendy is thinking big, \u201cIn this company, there are so many areas in which you can advance. They\u2019ll give you a chance. One day I might want to work on the business side, but right now I\u2019m having fun on the floor.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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For Richard, having the production floor adjacent to the design studio is a dream, \u201cIt\u2019s brilliant to have people in the workroom around to offer advice, correct things and make changes,\u201d he says. \u201cOur samples for this collection were made right here in just four weeks.\u201d It also allows them to explore ideas, \u201cIf we want to create a strap, we can do it 20 different ways until we decide that it\u2019s the perfect strap.\u201d Jen adds, \u201cThe development is more immediate, and you end up with a better product.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHOP THE SHINOLA LEATHER COLLECTION<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of Men\u2019s Fashion Week, and Shinola\u2019s inaugural collection by co-Design Directors of leather accessories, Richard Lambertson and John Truex; we\u2019re bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes behind Shinola\u2019s handcrafted leather.  For our Fall 2015 collection, the pair expands on Shinola\u2019s classic silhouettes and delivers the same modern attitude and […]<\/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":[16,22],"yoast_head":"\nThe New Face of Shinola Leather - 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\/new-face-shinola-leather\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The New Face of Shinola Leather - Our Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In honor of Men\u2019s Fashion Week, and Shinola\u2019s inaugural collection by co-Design Directors of leather accessories, Richard Lambertson and John Truex; we\u2019re bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes behind Shinola\u2019s handcrafted leather.  For our Fall 2015 collection, the pair expands on Shinola\u2019s classic silhouettes and delivers the same modern attitude and [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-13T04:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-03T16:43:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taylor Rebhan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/\",\"name\":\"Our Stories\",\"description\":\"A journal by Shinola dedicated to THE joy of craft\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/\",\"name\":\"The New Face of Shinola Leather - Our Stories\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-13T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-03T16:43:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/#\/schema\/person\/060aa96ae4cfa418688aa72467ed4568\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The New Face of Shinola Leather\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/#\/schema\/person\/060aa96ae4cfa418688aa72467ed4568\",\"name\":\"Taylor Rebhan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef281772e6ea80de61c511c2f4d4eef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef281772e6ea80de61c511c2f4d4eef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Taylor Rebhan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/author\/trebhan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The New Face of Shinola Leather - Our Stories","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ourstories.shinola.com\/our-stories\/new-face-shinola-leather\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The New Face of Shinola Leather - Our Stories","og_description":"In honor of Men\u2019s Fashion Week, and Shinola\u2019s inaugural collection by co-Design Directors of leather accessories, Richard Lambertson and John Truex; 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