Once a year I take a trip around the UK to visit a few of the tanneries and leather wholesalers I use. It takes a few days out of my schedule, and I cover about 900 miles doing it, but it means I can meet some of the people who support my business and spend a little time hunting for something new and exciting that I can bring to you. Yesterday I returned from the annual “Toshi Straps UK tour” with a car loaded with leather, and so over the next few weeks I’ll be previewing some exciting new leathers that will be launched soon.
Many of the leathers I use are one-offs – leathers that have been produced by a tannery in very small amounts and won’t be repeated. This means that at any time there will always be some straps shown on my website that I have low stock of and eventually will have to be removed (currently Mustard, Almond and Outback are getting low). I am always therefore looking for new leathers that I can add to my site so I can continue to offer the level of variety I’m known for, and this is why these annual trips are so important. I’ve found in my time working with leather that many of the nicest leathers are special treatments, and so the only way to find them is to visit the producers, ask them if they have anything unusual, hunt around and sometimes something beautiful turns up.
This year was very successful and well worth the time and effort. As always I spent far more money than I planned to, so I’m hoping when you see them that you like them as much as I do! I’ve come back with some very unusual Horween shell cordovan, an ox hide that I can’t wait to start working with, and another kudu skin which is slightly darker than the African Kudu that has been so popular over the last 12 months. In total there are eleven new leathers that I plan on launching over the next few months.
For those of you wondering why it takes so long for me to launch a new leather once I’ve got it, it’s worth explaining that before I make a leather available I first have to make a strap to test. Only after I’ve done this, and worn it for a while to make sure I’m happy with the way it wears, will I make it available. This means that it can be several weeks before the first straps will appear in the Store, but I’ll be as quick as I can, and previews will appear here in my blog first.
So watch this space – some new leathers will be launched soon!
You can subscribe to receive my blog posts by email. Simply enter your email address in the box at the top of the right hand column on this page and when I publish a new post you will receive it by email.