Starting a Leather Supply Business: The Leather Reserve
Starting a Leather Supply Business: The Leather Reserve
Overview
Guest: Grant Anderson, maker behind Uptown Common and founder of The Leather Reserve
Host: Matt Roach (@leathershoppod)
Release Date: 6/25/2026
Early Access for Patreon: 04/25/2026
Grant Anderson built Uptown Common one structured, hand-sewn bag at a time. He didn't plan to start a leather distribution business — that came from a single sale that nearly fell apart. A customer wanted a strap, the exact Italian hide had been discontinued, and Grant had to borrow material from a friend just to finish the order. A few weeks later he'd formed a company and wired money to a tannery in Italy. The Leather Reserve grew out of that gap, and this conversation moves between the two hats he now wears: the maker and the supplier.
Episode Highlights
A truck, not a wallet – Grant's gateway wasn't the usual first project; it was the saddle-leather interior of a used King Ranch F-150 he wanted to carry around.
Structure over slouch – He wet-forms almost everything, building gusset forms from acrylic to get sharp corners and a bag that holds its shape.
The signature stitch – Four needles, two thread colors, and a skip-a-hole rhythm produce the alternating stitch line his work is known for.
A $90 hammer that mattered – The Barry King maul changed how the work felt, after years on a dead-blow and a poly mallet.
From sale to corporation in weeks – A discontinued hide turned into a company name, a wire transfer to Italy, and roughly 200 hides on a boat.
Why makers can't buy direct – MPG's minimum order runs about 35 hides per color, which is the whole reason a middleman exists.
"I'm not stocking any leather right now that I won't be a user of myself. If it all goes bust, I guess I have a lifetime supply for Uptown Common." – Grant
About Grant Anderson & The Leather Reserve
Grant runs Uptown Common, a small handmade operation in the Indianapolis area focused on structured purses, briefcases, and bags. The shop started alongside his wife's macramé brand at artisan markets and grew as he taught himself to cut, burnish, and hand-sew. His work leans toward feminine, fashion-forward handbags, often finished with a two-color stitch line that's become a recognizable trademark. The Leather Reserve is his newer venture: a U.S. source for MPG Industria leather out of Italy — the Apollo, Aragona, and Vakeda lines — aimed at makers who can't meet a tannery's order minimums on their own. You can follow the making at @uptowncommon and the supply side at @theleatherreserve.
Craft Tips from the Episode
Wet-Forming for Structure
Grant clips the gusset to a flat acrylic form and shapes the U-curve at the corners, where the leather actually stretches — that bend is the part that matters most.
He's iterating toward a stacked-acrylic mold for his Cresta design: two full-size outer panels sandwiching slightly smaller inner layers, cinched with a leather belt strap instead of clamps to avoid leaving clip marks.
Because his bags are hand-sewn and not turned inside out, the seams stay visible — so the forming has to bring the whole shape together cleanly, not just hide mistakes.
Stitching & Thread
He started on waxed linen but broke it mid-stitch with fine 0.6mm irons; if it fails on the bench, it'll fail on the product, so he moved to Tiger/Ritza polyester for a "forever item."
The two-color stitch uses four needles and two separate threads, working every other hole in a leapfrog pattern. It adds roughly 20–30% to stitching time, not double.
A stitching pony doesn't help here — you have to drop the needles to pick up the second thread anyway, so Grant sews most of this in hand.
Tools, Jigs & the Barry King Maul
The maul upgrade did more for his work than most tool purchases; weight and feel matter, so test before you commit to a size.
Jigs can take you further than a fancier tool or a better hide — a simple centering jig for a clicker die makes a coaster die land perfectly every time.
Cutting a clean circle by hand is a losing battle; if you're doing volume, a clicker die saves the sanding. His Cresta purse, by contrast, has no straight lines and is all cut by hand — part of its appeal.
Follow & Resources
Uptown Common: @uptowncommon – handmade bags, purses, and the two-color stitch in close-up.
Uptown Common Website: uptowncommonhandmade.com
The Leather Reserve: @theleatherreserve – MPG leather for makers.
The Leather Reserve Website: theleatherreserve.com
Leather Shop Podcast: leathershoppod.com – more episodes and show notes.
Recommended Tools: Explore our Amazon Leathercraft List for tools discussed in this episode.
Listen Now
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Key Takeaways
A discontinued material can be a business opportunity — The Leather Reserve exists because one MPG hide stopped being available.
Tannery order minimums (around 35 hides per color) are why most makers buy through a middleman rather than direct.
Wet-forming with simple acrylic forms adds real structure to a hand-sewn bag without expensive tooling.
The two-color saddle stitch is four needles and two threads worked in a skip-a-hole pattern, not a trick of dyeing.
Thread strength is a durability decision; polyester held where fine linen broke.
Stock — or buy — leather you'd actually use yourself, so a slow season never leaves you stuck.
Tooling and jigs often improve results more than chasing the next premium hand tool.
Beginner Perspective
If you're early on, the most useful thing here is Grant's advice to just make the bag and let it be terrible. He still has a backpack he cut a year ago and hasn't sewn, so the hesitation never fully goes away — you start anyway. The episode also gives you plain language for decisions you'll face soon: why thread strength matters, why a clicker die beats hand-cutting circles, and why a better maul is worth saving for before a tenth set of stamps.
Professional Perspective
For working makers, this is a candid look at vertical integration on a small scale. Grant is honest that becoming his own supplier isn't really a margin play — the wholesale savings don't justify the investment — and that the real payoff is reliable access to leather he trusts. There's also useful product intel: how Apollo compares to Buttero, what corrected-grain Aragona is doing, and how he's working with MPG on custom colors and finish formulas. If you've thought about distribution, listen for the parts about cash outlay, storage, and competing against established suppliers.
Episode Breakdown
0:00 – Welcome and guest intro
1:02 – How Grant got into leather
2:09 – The King Ranch truck that started it
3:20 – Why leather longevity (and care) matters
4:26 – Hobby to business: Uptown Common
6:01 – Why most makers avoid bags
8:59 – Wet-forming for structured bags
12:15 – Acrylic forms, molds, and the strap trick
19:10 – The Barry King maul
20:50 – Hand stitching vs. machine
24:22 – The jig rabbit hole
27:09 – The two-color saddle stitch
29:47 – How the four-needle "leapfrog" stitch works
36:19 – Stitching ponies and their frustrations
42:54 – The Leather Reserve origin story
47:17 – Why makers can't buy direct
49:46 – What makes MPG leather different
55:12 – The Apollo, Aragona, and Vakeda lines
1:02:00 – Five-year plans for both brands
1:08:18 – Leather weight and the splitting-machine question
1:13:03 – Listener questions and where to find Grant
Grant's first shipment was crossing the Atlantic while we recorded, so there's a natural follow-up here — a real-world report once he's cut into all of it. We'll have him back to talk through what lived up to the hype and what didn't.
