Founded in 2021 by Caleb Rogers, Smokies Leather is a small family owned and operated business located in the small town of Athens, situated in the foothills of East Tennessee. All of our products are handcrafted in house using the finest US made vegetable tanned full grain leather, sourced from Wickett&Craig. Established in 1867, Wickett&Craig has 153 years of experience and is only one of two vegetable tanneries left in the US. Most products are made to order at the moment, though we do plan to start offering "Ready To Ship" options soon. Making everything to order allows us to offer our customers an impressive amount of variations so that they can personalize most of the products that they purchase from us to whatever their needs may be, while also allowing us to keep overhead and the cost to the customer as low as possible. To help put the amount of product variations into perspective, the SAM7sf wraps alone have up to 1,872 possible variations! We source only the highest quality material for our products, including the Wickett&Craig leather as mentioned, the Ritza 25 Tiger thread and John James needles that comes with our wrap kits, Springfield Leather bonded nylon thread for our patches, and more. Every process we've put into place, from start to finish, has quality and longevity in mind first, with the understanding that our products will need to be able to hold up to the elements and varying levels of abuse for years to come. With this in mind, we also hand finish all of our leather products with 2-3 coats of Resolene for a high degree of water and UV protection.

 

Background

      I was proudly born and raised in the town best known for The Battle of Athens(1946), where many of the citizens and the GI's, who had just returned from liberating Europe and parts of Asia, were given no choice but to liberate the town from a corrupt/oppressive local government. Growing up being taught about the towns history and hearing countless stories, some of which were firsthand accounts, inevitably instilled in me from a young age that the Second Amendment is the foundation for all of our other freedoms in America. My passion for history over the years has only helped to strengthen that understanding. Naturally, this has given me the appreciation and passion for exercising my Second Amendment rights as well as educating others on why it's so important that they do the same, and I feel this is what ultimately led me to what I'm doing today. 

                      Athens, TN August 2, 1946

 

 

       When I decided to pursue the idea of starting Smokies Leather, I did so with a few things in mind. First, I wanted to get off of the corporate ladder so that I could spend more time with my wife and, at the time, my newborn and 3 year old daughters. I knew it would be a considerable risk, and that it would not be an easy transition/learning curve, but, with a 3 hour daily commute that resulted in me only spending an average of 2 hrs a day with my family, I also knew that I would later regret the missed time if I continued down the career path I was on. Secondly, I wanted to utilize my time and skills to create and develop new products in the industry and for the community that I'm most passionate about. Lastly, like many of you, especially in these past few years, I got tired of large manufactures claiming their inflated prices were necessary just to barely get by as their quality continued to tumble. I wanted to bring to the market products that go above and beyond in regards to quality at a price that doesn't reflect a desire to hit the highest profit margins possible, but instead, reflects a passion to bring new innovation to the firearm community that most anyone can enjoy.

 

 Where We're At 2 Years Later

      Business continues to grow, and I couldn't be more grateful for the support I've received over the last couple of years! 

     To help help take Smokies Leather to the next level, I have recently partnered with Cole Rogers who will soon be taking over most of the social media networking and marketing, customer service, and demand analysis, while I continue to do the leathercraft, product development, website management, and a few other aspect of the business. Cole is a very much like minded individual who shares the same visions that I've had for Smokies Leather since day one, and this partnership is going to allow us to rapidly expand the Smokies Leather product line, greatly cut down on turnaround times, reach more customers through more consistent networking as well as future collaborations, and much more. 

 

 

 

LIFE TIME WARRANTY

     To show our confidence in our products, we decided to offer a LIFETIME, no questions asked, warranty on ALL of our products. While being a small business allows us to offer more personalized options, it also means we don't have the capital to invest in large ad campaigns. We rely on mostly word of mouth, and so we look to gain loyal fans, not just "customers". My plan to achieve this is by keeping things interesting with options, sourcing only the best materials for making our products, and backing them up for life.

  

 

Note: Please visit our suppliers page for more details on the materials we use and where it all comes from. My goal is to be as transparent as possible in regards to our resourcing of material. There's no reason to hide anything, even down to the thread we use, when we are proudly sourcing only the best material.