They say that the only thing constant in life is change. We at Leather Naturally and Manor Gear know that to be true. When we started in 2004 Leather Naturally was going to be called The Naked Cow and we were going to be an Authorized Tandy Leather Distributor. Well, when we went to incorporate our attorney said no soap on The Naked Cow so we changed cow to leather and naked to naturally and we became Leather Naturally. Then 3 weeks before we were to open our doors Tandy Leather said “we’re going in a different direction,” and pulled the distributorship from us and four months after we open they opened their Cleveland store. This forced us to reevaluate being a “Tandy” type supply store and we went into the repair, restoration, and custom work. That work did okay for us for many years, but we learned that making our own product and selling it under the Manor Gear brand and doing live event sales was where we do best. This has been our way for the last several years but then, 2020 and Covid-19 hit, and all our live event shows were canceled. We have had zero sales events due to Covid-19. When you don’t have many sales where you can at least sustain your shop space and pay rent, utilities, insurance, and internet the business stops supporting itself and it led us to make a very tough and difficult decision.
We decided to close the Leather Naturally retail store front and move our Manor Gear production into our tiny house. Our store front is officially closed. We are still in business, we are just now internet and live event (whenever we are allowed to meet again) business. The money we will save from not paying to keep the store open and the lights turned on will be able to be put back into Manor Gear to develop new products and increase our inventory. Also, we will still be active in the Leather Community and as things open up and we are allowed to see each other we will be there supporting as we’ve always have. We will still be doing custom work. If we know you and have met you and you live in the Cleveland area and want something custom made we can meet with you and work on getting that perfect leather item made. If you are from further away and can’t meet up with us we have proven techniques to make items via long distance and will be happy to make you that unique custom leather item. And yes, we can still do repairs on your leather goods. We still have our phone number, our email and our website to contact us by.
If you are looking for our Manor Gear items, all of our products are available on our website at www.manorgear.com . We have a shopping cart and everything! If you are a member of the Leather Community and like this page, please like our Manor Gear Facebook Page to keep up to date on what is happening. There will probably be more changes down the road, but we’ve learned to embrace change for the opportunities it provides.
This isn’t goodbye…this is a new hello to our friends. Our world headquarters may be smaller now, but we are still Leather Naturally/Manor Gear…For All Your Leather Needs!