I have never been one to jump in on a movement of any sorts. I’ve never been the type of person who gets behind beliefs and organizations, but I have always been someone who has very strong morals and values. Honesty and integrity is a large part of what makes up who I am. So when I decided to start SoulBound Leather, I wanted to make sure that my morals and beliefs would also carry into every single aspect of how I do my work. I told myself and anyone who asked me what I wanted out of my business; that I wanted to make a comfortable living and grow as much as possible without giving up honest hard work, integrity and my own beliefs and morals.

One of the first things that I did was try and figure out why my fellow Americans were believing that what I sold was such a high price. When I did my own calculations on my cost of living and cost of supplies and hourly wage, I thought that my prices were pretty fair. After being a maker for some time, I started to see the prices of things like $20 jeans and $5 shirts and think to myself “how on Earth is this article of clothing so cheap? I know what it takes to make this, so how is this even possible?” This lead me on a journey that would lead to my AHA moment! When I bought things for my own business, I was on a budget, so I did like what most Americans do: I bought the cheapest things that I could find for my business, but also looked for quality. This lead me to a mostly middle-ground in prices for hardware, tools and leather. That is until I figured out why the prices were so cheap.

It is true that many of our large corporations in America must outsource their goods. But the sad fact of that is that the cost of such low prices usually falls on the health of the manufacturer workers. Our large corporations bully manufacturer owners to make cheaper goods at lower costs to beat their competitors and many of these manufacture owners are forced to push product faster, cheaper because they cannot afford to lose the business of the bigger corporations. It is a cycle of vicious monopolizing and I am not okay with that. It not only hurts us, but it hurts other humans and it also severely pollutes our planet. If goods are so cheap that we can just easily throw them away, then we have lost the value in that item. We forget about the labor that went into making the article of clothing and we also forget about our planet, who provided the resources to make it. I care about our planet and I care about human rights. I think we can make a difference in the way we purchase things and in the way we use what we buy.

Here, at SoulBound Leather, I do my very best to purchase my hardware Made In America. I believe in the Made In America movement. I believe that by purchasing the items that are made here, we bring jobs back into our nation and we help our nation grow and thrive. I know what it is to buy products that are made here. Buying American Made goods should not have to cost more. The only way that we can change that is if we make the changes ourselves. When I buy something that is Made In America, I know that I am getting a quality product, employees are working in safe conditions and they are being paid a living wage.

I want to thank you for reading this and supporting Made In America brands.