Leather/Hide/Skin Pros

Kevin Hopkins

My name is Kevin Hopkins. I've been involved in the leather business since 1973. I took up leather working as a way to make extra money, and it soon became a way of earning a living. I think I've tooled every kit that tandy ever made, and I've got leather pictures hanging in rooms all over the world. I began working as a store manager for Tandy Leather in 1975. During the next 23 yrs, I managed stores for them in Rochester Mn, Fargo Nd, and Springfield Mo. During that time, the Springfield Missouri store became the largest volume store in Tandy's chain. At the same time, my wife and I began a small manufacturing business that produced leather goods for the tourist industry in Branson Mo.
I was fortunate to be in an area where there were lots of shoe factories and boot factories, so I gained a good knowledge of many machines used in the leather industry today. I also spent many many hours in Tandy's factory in Fort Worth Tx., and learned a great deal about manufacturing techniques from them. We also learned many processes and "tricks of the trade" through trial and error in our small operation out of our garage. In 1999, Tandy closed their store chain, and I bought what became Springfield leather, and began to expand. We now run a completely equipped leather production shop, capable of anything from Boots to Upholstery, and anything in between. I think I either have sold, or have, just about any leather that can be imagined. I've been fortunate throughout the years to come to know a great many leather suppliers, tanners, and various vendors, and have accumulated a pretty good knowledge of where many leathers can be found. I'm a fair scrounger, and several customers refer to me as the "pack rat from, well, you know.. I really enjoy being able to help people to succeed. My wife says that I'm a bit strange, but she always smiles when she says it!

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Leather Baron of California Third Generation Leather Merchant
Reprinted from Old Santa Ynez Day Newspaper 1996

Meet Steve Siegel, owner of Siegel of California and a third generation leather merchant whose roots are tied to the leather district of Boston, Massachusetts. The M. Siegel Company was started by his grandfather in 1917, and today is still one of the oldest remaining merchant trade families in the United States.

That leather district of Boston was, at that time, the center of trade for the entire world, and anyone wanting to deal with anything in leather or other goods (importing or exporting) would go to the South Street merchants.

Steve's grandfather would buy the processed hides and then turn around and resell them to manufacturers for anything that required leather. "Excess leather at that time was even sold for fertilizer, and shipped to Florida to fertilize the orange trees," stated Siegel. A huge exporting business was also developed by M. Siegel, and leather was shipped to such areas as Cuba, Lebanon and other parts of Europe.
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