THE MAKER PROJECT

Meet the Makers

Asa Keeley and Amanda Munson, Leather Makers

“I think for both of us, it's just really therapeutic almost to just make stuff,” said Amanda Munson, co-owner, with her husband Asa Keeley, of Kingdom Leather, based in Wheelock, Vermont. “And it's really cool too… we get our music going and we just kind of come out here and just vibe out and make stuff.”

‘Here’ is a free-standing two-car garage converted into the company’s workshop when the couple bought their home this spring. For the first five years of the business, the business was run out of a spare room in their apartment, “a 9 x 11 room,” Asa said, “with two very large sewing machines and two work benches. And Harley, our dog.”

“If Harley was in there and we were both working at a workbench,” Amanda said, “you could barely move.”

The couple’s maker journey began in 2019. Asa was working as a traveling farrier (someone who specializes in horse hoof care). “We were on the road for three weeks at a time, living in hotel rooms. And we would do tack repair because a lot of horseshoeing tools and leather working tools are kind of very similar. So I started doing a little tack repair and then my boss at the time kind of started getting into holster making. Kind of as just a little hobby, like something he'd do in the wintertime. And I jumped right into it. I started doing belts, wallets, and then I started investing in my own equipment.”

Amanda jumps in to deliver the key line, “It really all started with belts.”

By that she means not just Asa’s leather making, but their relationship.

Amanda was working a horse farm, making horseshoes as a blacksmith, when she met Asa, who mentioned he was making leather belts. To which Amanda replied, "Well, I want a leather belt. I want a studded leather belt."

It was, Amanda continued, “like the third belt he ever made and I wanted like eight million studs on it and this wild pattern. And so of course he's like, ‘Yeah, no problem. I can make that for you.’ And then I kind of started coming up here and was hanging out in the leather shop, just making small things like earrings and key chains. And I said, ‘All right, let's make some bags. We could really do some cool stuff and I think people would really be into it.’”

Then came the lockdown in 2020.

“We made a lot of stuff during COVID,” Amanda said. The couple taught themselves the craft by doing—making belts and wallets and graduating to bags.

“I kind of just think of the bag that I want,” Amanda said. “And then we make a pattern for it and we make it. I take it for a test run and we typically will take some photos of it and do some lifestyle photos and post it and see what kind of feedback we get from people. And if it draws a lot of interest, we're like, ‘Okay, let's put this out there for the world to buy and see how it works.’”

It’s the perfect business for Asa, who “grew up outside doing stuff… getting into woodworking and metalworking” out in western New York, and also for Amanda, who grew up in Connecticut, the daughter of an artist and a sheet metal worker. And so their business reflects a deep appreciation of craft.

“A big thing to me,” Asa said, “is that something you use every day… if you care about such things, it should be handmade. Somebody should put a lot of thought into it. It shouldn't be just something, ‘Oh, it was cheap. It was on sale. It's going to fall apart in two years, but I don't care.’ For people that really appreciate it, I feel like they appreciate the time that goes into it, the thought that goes into it. And we love making stuff for people that appreciate that. It's very fulfilling and rewarding to see somebody out in public or up in Maine wearing one of our bags.”

“I think for both of us, it's just really therapeutic almost to just make stuff.”

That commitment to thoughtfulness also applies to their growth strategy. “Everything we have,” Amanda said, “we've built from what we have and have worked for… There was never this moment where we were stressed because of money because we're like, ‘Oh, we didn't sell this many bags and now we're freaking out because we have to pay these bills.’ We kind of really worked up to this place and kind of created that foundation for ourselves.” They did not take out loans to grow, but grew organically, saving up to make the upgrades that allowed them to automate some tedious parts of the process while maintaining their quality commitment. “We want people to be able to invest in a good timeless piece that's going to hold up, but also look good and not fray or stretch out,” Amanda added, when discussing the unique durability and quality of their bag straps.

“We had a woman come over the other day and she bought one of these bags right here,” Amanda continued, pointing to a display of their bags on the cutting table. “And she was like, ‘This is the first nice bag I've bought myself since 2008.’ And she was really, really, really excited about it. So seeing people and just excited and appreciative for what we're making is a really good feeling too.”

The couple’s thoughtfulness applies also to their choices of suppliers and materials. All their leather is sourced from Pennsylvania and Illinois, Asa explained. “It's all US-tanned vegetable tan leather. So there's no crazy chemicals. It's all just root extracts and tannins from bark. And it's a very natural process. And that was really important to us when we started because… there's a quick and fast way of making leather, which uses a lot of weird chemical roots… If you do it the quick and fast way, which a lot of companies do, using that leather, you could tan a hide in like three days. But if you do it with vegetable tanning, it takes three months to make one hide of leather.”

“The veg tan process is much more environmentally friendly,” Amanda added, “but also work condition-wise, it's a lot more friendly, because the folks that are in these tanneries that are actually tanning the leather, they're not working in these conditions with these super harsh chemicals that are then polluting the planet. It's a much friendlier environment for the people that are tanning the leather and just environmentally it's a better choice.”

The couple also likes to work with other local businesses as much as possible, and Amanda highlighted a leather balm they source from a company up in Maine. And they source all their non-leather parts from the best in the business, with zippers from Sweden and hardware from the same suppliers as used by Louis Vuitton and Dolce Gabana.

Meanwhile, the success of their online marketing and the growth of their website sales (“three times last year,” Asa said), does not have them dreaming of scaling up to a huge enterprise. Mostly they’d like a larger shop to work in, and to both be making full time (Amanda quit her full time job in June to devote herself entirely to the business; Asa still works full time for the state.).

“We want to keep it small,” Amanda said. “We want to keep it just us. Because I feel like when you get too big, you lose that.”

“Something you use every day… if you care about such things, it should be handmade.”

The Vermont Maker Project

Telling stories about real makers. Photographed and written by StoryWorkz. Learn more at themakerproject.com.

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