the uphill school of leather thought
October 2, 2019
notes
You may have noticed that some of our products look almost the same, but are priced differently. We obsess over leather and different kinds of leather. It’s our most costly material and most companies try to find the lowest-priced leather possible. We like to pair the qualities of certain leathers with the ideal use for our design. We use four distinct types of leather (hurray, Dan’s graduate degree came to use!) and each one has a different cost. In particular, our Montana leather costs us 67% more than our kodiak leather. Here are some of the reasons our leathers cost what they do.
Full Grain Leather
“The worn leather look of Uphill products is something I particularly like, because you can't fake years of wear on real leather.” - Zach, a happy customer 2 years later
My friend Zach bought one of our belts early on and wrote this to me recently. This is the joy of full-grain leather. All four types of leather we use at Uphill Designs (LINK TO COMPOSITION) are full-grain cowhide. Full grain leather is the strongest, more beautiful, and most durable form of leather, and it’s the only leather we design with. Designations like ‘Genuine’, ‘top grain’, or ‘upholstery’ leather, are mass-production shortcuts and they will lose vibrancy from the day you buy it until the day you throw it away. Even worse are leather-like materials that are basically ground up leather and glued back together to be a uniform, boring, dead material. In our designs, we highlight the full grain leather by leaving the natural range markings accrued during the cow’s life. While leather used in mass-production has been sanded down and layers shaved off to remove any subtlety, our leather is characterized by small differences in dye, aberrations, range markings and varying grain patterns.
Patina
Full grain leather is the only leather than can truly Patina. As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
The tanning process
A leather hide begins life as an animal skin (see what IS leather composition) and is put through one of two types of tanning processes referred to as Veg Tanning and Chrome Tanning.
Veg Tanning
Short for Vegetable Tanning, Veg Tan leather uses tannic acid derived from plants, such as the bark of red oak, spruce, or hemlock. This process requires weeks to complete the tanning process and typically produces tough, stiff leather. Importantly in our products, Veg Tan leather has the property of absorbing the oil from your hands, softening and developing a beautiful Patina over time. Veg Tan also tend to absorb water quicker than Chrome Tan leathers.
Chrome-tanning
Chrome Tan leather uses Chromium(III) sulfate to penetrate the cell walls and bind to the collagen in the cells. This process takes just a few days to complete the tanning process and can produce leathers that are soft and malleable.
Polymer Coating
For our Montana leather we use a process that applies a polymer coating to our Veg Tan leathers. This polymer coating protects the color of the leather and makes it more water resistant.
You may have noticed that some of our products look almost the same, but are priced differently. We obsess over leather and different kinds of leather. It’s our most costly material and most companies try to find the lowest-priced leather possible. We like to pair the qualities of certain leathers with the ideal use for our design. We use four distinct types of leather (hurray, Dan’s graduate degree came to use!) and each one has a different cost. In particular, our Montana leather costs us 67% more than our kodiak leather. Here are some of the reasons our leathers cost what they do.
Full Grain Leather
“The worn leather look of Uphill products is something I particularly like, because you can't fake years of wear on real leather.” - Zach, a happy customer 2 years later
My friend Zach bought one of our belts early on and wrote this to me recently. This is the joy of full-grain leather. All four types of leather we use at Uphill Designs (LINK TO COMPOSITION) are full-grain cowhide. Full grain leather is the strongest, more beautiful, and most durable form of leather, and it’s the only leather we design with. Designations like ‘Genuine’, ‘top grain’, or ‘upholstery’ leather, are mass-production shortcuts and they will lose vibrancy from the day you buy it until the day you throw it away. Even worse are leather-like materials that are basically ground up leather and glued back together to be a uniform, boring, dead material. In our designs, we highlight the full grain leather by leaving the natural range markings accrued during the cow’s life. While leather used in mass-production has been sanded down and layers shaved off to remove any subtlety, our leather is characterized by small differences in dye, aberrations, range markings and varying grain patterns.
Patina
Full grain leather is the only leather than can truly Patina. As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
The tanning process
A leather hide begins life as an animal skin (see what IS leather composition) and is put through one of two types of tanning processes referred to as Veg Tanning and Chrome Tanning.
Veg Tanning
Short for Vegetable Tanning, Veg Tan leather uses tannic acid derived from plants, such as the bark of red oak, spruce, or hemlock. This process requires weeks to complete the tanning process and typically produces tough, stiff leather. Importantly in our products, Veg Tan leather has the property of absorbing the oil from your hands, softening and developing a beautiful Patina over time. Veg Tan also tend to absorb water quicker than Chrome Tan leathers.
Chrome-tanning
Chrome Tan leather uses Chromium(III) sulfate to penetrate the cell walls and bind to the collagen in the cells. This process takes just a few days to complete the tanning process and can produce leathers that are soft and malleable.
Polymer Coating
For our Montana leather we use a process that applies a polymer coating to our Veg Tan leathers. This polymer coating protects the color of the leather and makes it more water resistant.
Burnishing
Many leather companies, especially those in design and fashion use ‘edge paint’ to seal the edges of their leather. We seal the edges of our Montana leather with a gum agent and use a motorized spinning wheel which uses friction to smooth the gum into the leather.
Dyeing
Utility leather - we hand-dye our utility leather products, giving a unique matte and industrial look. In leather, dyeing is far more of an art than it is a science. We have tried and true techniques that we teach in our leather working classes and yet there are still days where the humidity is off or Mercury is in retrograde and our dye lots come out streaky.
We also hand-dye the edges of the kodiak straps on some of our luxury bags. For us this ads a layer of protection for the raw leather while also steering us clear of edge-paint, a plasticy-looking and feeling solution used by many other bag-makers.
Milling
Any of our leather with a luxurious pebbled appearance is created through a process of mechanically tumbling and milling the leather in rollers. Mass-produced leathers often miss the mark by stamping the pebbled pattern onto the sanded down hides - this again creates a material that will only lose its appearance of quality over time. In Milled leather, the beautiful pebbling is the actual structure of the material and makes it pliable, yet incredibly strong.
As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
Due to its heritage quality, our full-grain leather is incredibly easy to care for. Leather is an amazing material and with proper care our products will last a lifetime. Here’s what we ask. Keep it away from salt water. Buff out scratches with either your hand, or leather oil (here’s one from Otterwax) - this will aid in the rich ‘patina’ that is only possible in full-grain leather. Leather conditioner can treat leather that, after time, have begun to feel dry or brittle. Please test any oil or conditioner on a small, non-visible portion of your product. Oils and conditioners will darken the appearance of your product.
Burnishing
Many leather companies, especially those in design and fashion use ‘edge paint’ to seal the edges of their leather. We seal the edges of our Montana leather with a gum agent and use a motorized spinning wheel which uses friction to smooth the gum into the leather.
Dyeing
Utility leather - we hand-dye our utility leather products, giving a unique matte and industrial look. In leather, dyeing is far more of an art than it is a science. We have tried and true techniques that we teach in our leather working classes and yet there are still days where the humidity is off or Mercury is in retrograde and our dye lots come out streaky.
We also hand-dye the edges of the kodiak straps on some of our luxury bags. For us this ads a layer of protection for the raw leather while also steering us clear of edge-paint, a plasticy-looking and feeling solution used by many other bag-makers.
Milling
Any of our leather with a luxurious pebbled appearance is created through a process of mechanically tumbling and milling the leather in rollers. Mass-produced leathers often miss the mark by stamping the pebbled pattern onto the sanded down hides - this again creates a material that will only lose its appearance of quality over time. In Milled leather, the beautiful pebbling is the actual structure of the material and makes it pliable, yet incredibly strong.
As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
Due to its heritage quality, our full-grain leather is incredibly easy to care for. Leather is an amazing material and with proper care our products will last a lifetime. Here’s what we ask. Keep it away from salt water. Buff out scratches with either your hand, or leather oil (here’s one from Otterwax) - this will aid in the rich ‘patina’ that is only possible in full-grain leather. Leather conditioner can treat leather that, after time, have begun to feel dry or brittle. Please test any oil or conditioner on a small, non-visible portion of your product. Oils and conditioners will darken the appearance of your product.
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the uphill school of leather thought
October 2, 2019
notes
You may have noticed that some of our products look almost the same, but are priced differently. We obsess over leather and different kinds of leather. It’s our most costly material and most companies try to find the lowest-priced leather possible. We like to pair the qualities of certain leathers with the ideal use for our design. We use four distinct types of leather (hurray, Dan’s graduate degree came to use!) and each one has a different cost. In particular, our Montana leather costs us 67% more than our kodiak leather. Here are some of the reasons our leathers cost what they do.
Full Grain Leather
“The worn leather look of Uphill products is something I particularly like, because you can't fake years of wear on real leather.” - Zach, a happy customer 2 years later
My friend Zach bought one of our belts early on and wrote this to me recently. This is the joy of full-grain leather. All four types of leather we use at Uphill Designs (LINK TO COMPOSITION) are full-grain cowhide. Full grain leather is the strongest, more beautiful, and most durable form of leather, and it’s the only leather we design with. Designations like ‘Genuine’, ‘top grain’, or ‘upholstery’ leather, are mass-production shortcuts and they will lose vibrancy from the day you buy it until the day you throw it away. Even worse are leather-like materials that are basically ground up leather and glued back together to be a uniform, boring, dead material. In our designs, we highlight the full grain leather by leaving the natural range markings accrued during the cow’s life. While leather used in mass-production has been sanded down and layers shaved off to remove any subtlety, our leather is characterized by small differences in dye, aberrations, range markings and varying grain patterns.
Patina
Full grain leather is the only leather than can truly Patina. As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
The tanning process
A leather hide begins life as an animal skin (see what IS leather composition) and is put through one of two types of tanning processes referred to as Veg Tanning and Chrome Tanning.
Veg Tanning
Short for Vegetable Tanning, Veg Tan leather uses tannic acid derived from plants, such as the bark of red oak, spruce, or hemlock. This process requires weeks to complete the tanning process and typically produces tough, stiff leather. Importantly in our products, Veg Tan leather has the property of absorbing the oil from your hands, softening and developing a beautiful Patina over time. Veg Tan also tend to absorb water quicker than Chrome Tan leathers.
Chrome-tanning
Chrome Tan leather uses Chromium(III) sulfate to penetrate the cell walls and bind to the collagen in the cells. This process takes just a few days to complete the tanning process and can produce leathers that are soft and malleable.
Polymer Coating
For our Montana leather we use a process that applies a polymer coating to our Veg Tan leathers. This polymer coating protects the color of the leather and makes it more water resistant.
Burnishing
Many leather companies, especially those in design and fashion use ‘edge paint’ to seal the edges of their leather. We seal the edges of our Montana leather with a gum agent and use a motorized spinning wheel which uses friction to smooth the gum into the leather.
Dyeing
Utility leather - we hand-dye our utility leather products, giving a unique matte and industrial look. In leather, dyeing is far more of an art than it is a science. We have tried and true techniques that we teach in our leather working classes and yet there are still days where the humidity is off or Mercury is in retrograde and our dye lots come out streaky.
We also hand-dye the edges of the kodiak straps on some of our luxury bags. For us this ads a layer of protection for the raw leather while also steering us clear of edge-paint, a plasticy-looking and feeling solution used by many other bag-makers.
Milling
Any of our leather with a luxurious pebbled appearance is created through a process of mechanically tumbling and milling the leather in rollers. Mass-produced leathers often miss the mark by stamping the pebbled pattern onto the sanded down hides - this again creates a material that will only lose its appearance of quality over time. In Milled leather, the beautiful pebbling is the actual structure of the material and makes it pliable, yet incredibly strong.
As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
Due to its heritage quality, our full-grain leather is incredibly easy to care for. Leather is an amazing material and with proper care our products will last a lifetime. Here’s what we ask. Keep it away from salt water. Buff out scratches with either your hand, or leather oil (here’s one from Otterwax) - this will aid in the rich ‘patina’ that is only possible in full-grain leather. Leather conditioner can treat leather that, after time, have begun to feel dry or brittle. Please test any oil or conditioner on a small, non-visible portion of your product. Oils and conditioners will darken the appearance of your product.
Burnishing
Many leather companies, especially those in design and fashion use ‘edge paint’ to seal the edges of their leather. We seal the edges of our Montana leather with a gum agent and use a motorized spinning wheel which uses friction to smooth the gum into the leather.
Dyeing
Utility leather - we hand-dye our utility leather products, giving a unique matte and industrial look. In leather, dyeing is far more of an art than it is a science. We have tried and true techniques that we teach in our leather working classes and yet there are still days where the humidity is off or Mercury is in retrograde and our dye lots come out streaky.
We also hand-dye the edges of the kodiak straps on some of our luxury bags. For us this ads a layer of protection for the raw leather while also steering us clear of edge-paint, a plasticy-looking and feeling solution used by many other bag-makers.
Milling
Any of our leather with a luxurious pebbled appearance is created through a process of mechanically tumbling and milling the leather in rollers. Mass-produced leathers often miss the mark by stamping the pebbled pattern onto the sanded down hides - this again creates a material that will only lose its appearance of quality over time. In Milled leather, the beautiful pebbling is the actual structure of the material and makes it pliable, yet incredibly strong.
As leather products are used, scratched, handled, and flexed, they ‘patina’ - undergoing the process of absorbing oils from their environment that in time strengthen, heal, and soften your piece. Patina cannot be faked and gives a deep, luxurious richness to a well-loved leather good. Full grain leather, real leather, is the only leather grade that will get richer and more beautiful as it ages,
Due to its heritage quality, our full-grain leather is incredibly easy to care for. Leather is an amazing material and with proper care our products will last a lifetime. Here’s what we ask. Keep it away from salt water. Buff out scratches with either your hand, or leather oil (here’s one from Otterwax) - this will aid in the rich ‘patina’ that is only possible in full-grain leather. Leather conditioner can treat leather that, after time, have begun to feel dry or brittle. Please test any oil or conditioner on a small, non-visible portion of your product. Oils and conditioners will darken the appearance of your product.