About Old Church Works - Leather Notebook covers

I like leather. I love leather notebook covers for Moleskine and Field Notes notebooks.

So, they say the first question you should ask yourself when starting a company is, “Are the goods or services we make something we ourselves need or want. For me, this question came in the form of, “Are the goods I am crafting for myself worthy of sharing with others?”

It turns out, after the encouragement of others, yes.

For the last couple years I have been developing leather goods, starting with leather notebook covers that I really wanted to use. I would make one or two, use it for 6 months and change what I didn’t like about it. During that process I learn something interesting about my taste. The more simple the design, the more I liked it. I think it’s because people burn out much more quickly on complexity – especially with something one may use everyday. I love the clean, simple aesthetic of leather craft. No sewing machines and no dye-cuts are used here. Human-crafted means just that. Imperfect, yet high-quality craft work reflects the materials we love, leather.

Over the years I’ve scoped out many of these companies that sell super expensive leather stuff. Occasionally, through an act of weakness, I purchased one or two of these items. After dealing with buyers remorse because of the price, I was impressed by the machine quality, but something about it just didn’t work for me. It was too slick, too nice, too something. So I set out to make comfortably high quality goods I would want to use everyday.

For a long time I refused to add my logo to my leather work. But I comprised by adding my brand to the back side of all our goods. I love our branding. I think you will too but I don’t want to over do it. We do not represent the marketing industrial complex. However, we are building a long lasting heritage brand.

We only offer vegetable-tanned, undyed, natural leather. It’s the only kind we feel develops character and improves with age. I just adore the wear and patina aging process of natural leather. How many goods do you know have that quality?
Back in 2012 I started making and selling a pretty cool product line for a more edgier market. At the end of 2014 I began working on a rebranding effort to more effectively reflect the work we were doing with our new goods. Thus Old Church Works was born. You can read the fascinating backstory that inspired our new brand here.

We are a family shop. Our roles are changing as we grow. We have a good time as a family developing our little company.