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In the early days, our company was based out of a garage, where our founders sat on the floor and slowly crafted each order by hand. Business started to grow as more people connected with our simple designs, and we soon outgrew the garage. This led us to find our home: a big, sunny workshop in SE Portland. Our team began to grow as well, changing quickly from 2 to 10 to over 30 artists and makers. We’ve been thankful to everyone who supports us in continuing to grow every day. Even though things look a lot different than they used to, we're proud to work with people that we like to spend time with!
We’re a group of artists, painters, actors, woodworkers, teachers, writers, photographers, designers, birth doulas, therapists, and more who want creative outlets in all parts of life. Our team comes together to be creative, to work with our hands, and to enjoy spending the day together doing something we love.
What makes Portland Leather Goods so unique is our high-quality products with affordable prices. The traditional artisan method is to work with a very small team, producing high-quality products slowly. These goods are sold for high prices, due to the time and high cost of small-scale production, and customers work directly with the artist during the process. These goods are generally very high quality, are locally produced, and have inimitable character.
The traditional mass-production method is the opposite. A large group works quickly and efficiently to produce a lot of something. These productions work because each product is much less expensive. However, the items are generally lower quality, are not personalized, and it can be challenging to reach a real person to help you answer questions or get additional information.
Our method is different from both of these. We are artists who ensure the quality of everything we work on. We still hand-make all of our products from start to finish, work directly with our customers, and create personalized, top-quality leather goods with a lot of character. However, we've streamlined our process to be able to offer prices that even college students can afford!
Each item is designed by a member of our team, often going through several stages of prototypes that team members try out and give feedback on. We source the materials that we need, then we’re ready to get making! Each item is cut from leather, branded, sewn, has hardware attached, gets personalized, and is checked for quality at each step. We package it and have it ready for our daily mail pickup. This process takes anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks, depending on the season.
We also handle all of our customer service from within the workshop, meaning anyone who answers your call or email is in direct communication with the makers of your custom item. Not outsourcing these steps allows us to ensure top quality leather goods and top quality customer service.
