CreateLab: Manufacturing Handmade Leather Goods in the UK
Leatherworking is an ancient craft surrounded by a rich cultural tradition. London-based leather brand Nosakhari focuses on this age-old tradition, igniting individuality and self-expression, crafting luxury leather accessories that help consumers celebrate their differences in the modern world. After a few not so good experiences with leather manufacturing companies, we founded CreateLab to offer the level of quality and services we couldn’t find anywhere else. At CreateLab Nosakhari, we value the art of making great products and we can help bring your ideas into reality, from making a sample product to sourcing leather or assisting you with small and regular production runs. In this post, we are gonna explore how the business of manufacturing handmade leather goods works and walk you through the best practices for getting started with a bespoke leather business in the UK.
Leather manufacturers sit at the core of the leather business. Their mission is to source the finest hides from around the globe, dyeing them and finishing the leather to the customers’ exact specifications. As you can see, leather manufacturers have complete control over the entire leather-making process, and it is their mission to ensure that the quality of their leather goods is nothing far from perfection. Finding a suitable and trusted manufacturer is not always easy especially since the rise of outsourcing, which offers low costs and quick production. Although it may be cost-efficient, it often leads to sacrificing the quality of service and the benefits of manufacturing locally.
As customers become more and more aware of what they wear and how the fashion industry impacts the overall environment, ethical brands are becoming more popular. A product that was carefully made by hand shows careful consideration not just for the environment, but for the end-user too and companies who are more aware of their consumers’ demand are the winners of the market. At Nosakhari, we have particularly at heart both sustainability and our client’s interest, that is why we encourage businesses to go domestic, manufacturing leather locally.
Home to expert leather artisans, buying a locally made product from the United Kingdom ensures its quality and has a minimal environmental impact. While outsourcing limits your capacity to oversee the process from start to finish, choosing local manufacturing means you get to be part of the production process. Direct communication between you and your manufacturers allows for a more organic development process: the company and the client understand each other better and can solve issues quicker and more easily. Being better connected to the development of your product allows for higher quality control, reducing overproduction and “air miles” making your products eco-friendlier.
With local manufacturers, you are able to check for fair working conditions and ethical production. Using local production facilities enables you to oversee working conditions avoiding, for example, the exploitation of minors in production, and make sure the manufacturer abides by health and safety regulations. As the world is finally becoming aware of the effects of fast fashion, the customers will value ethically made products more and appreciate them.
London-based leather brand Nosakhari CreateLab provides expert knowledge on manufacturing services and product design for fashion accessories helping local leather businesses to start their own leather business in the UK. Our services include Leather Sourcing, Sample Making and Production. Let’s have a look at the leather fashion goods’ journey – from initial sketch to stores – and how CreateLab can help you every step of the way.
The leather creative journey starts by sketching out your ideas and concepts. It’s better to start on paper, before taking the design on to a computer, as it allows you to elaborate on your inspiration and helps you think through various functions and details. Once you have hand-drawn sketches of your leather product, it’s time to pass to a 3D conceptual design. A digital mock-up of your leather fashion item will help leather manufacturers create patterns and sewing plans and source the best leather for your leather prototype. Createlab can help you building leather prototypes that speak to your design idea and philosophy.
Next is finding a premium leather goods manufacturer. Sometimes you’ll struggle to find someone who meets your requirements, especially when you are just at the beginning and prefer to invest in a minimum number as a first run. As a British leather goods manufacturer, CreateLab can guide you through the leather manufacturing process and give input based on our expertise.
It’s now time to source the right type of leather, which involves a lot of work. From the size, tanning, thickness, grade selection, colour, and price, CreateLab can help you source the right piece of leather. At Nosakhari, we have a long history of working with premium suppliers and tanneries who continue to provide us with the best of the best quality leather under the international environmental laws and standards.
Once you’ve chosen the leather, your sketches will be translated into your first physical leather fashion prototype. After the first prototype has been created, you may want to make some changes, so we will help you modify and improve your sample. Each one of these prototypes takes time and costs money, but they are all part of the investment to create an excellent final product. At CreateLab, we develop pre-production samples and manufacture the leather products ourselves producing around 20-150 products per week, each crafted in our London studio.
The feeling of seeing and touching your finished leather product is something indescribable, a mixture of euphoria, accomplishment and success. Once the bespoke leather accessory is ready and ensuring premium quality is achieved, CreateLab will help you retail your products in physical and online stores.
Interested in launching your own leather business? Championing individuality and self-expression, Nosakhari Create Lab can help you bring your ideas into reality, from making a sample product to sourcing leather or helping you with small and regular production runs. Let us know what you need and leave the rest to us.
We have our design team ready and open to any design challenges. We focus on bringing the best technical and leather design solutions, collaborating one on one, ensuring the design is seamless and exactly what you wished for. Please send us your leather accessory designs to discuss how we can help you build first-class samples, bringing each piece of your idea of perfection.
