Ying’s Leather Things

2021-Present

Ying's Leather Things is my small business specializing in handcrafted leather goods. I design, prototype, and handcraft products like wallets, watch straps, and more, all available for sale on a made to order basis on my website (the one you’re on right now!).

It all began when I made a duck tape wallet for my dad’s birthday. When Father’s Day rolled around, I decided to find a leather wallet that would be much higher-quality than the duck tape, but the only options that I could find were either poor quality, made of low-end materials, or badly designed. That didn’t cut it for me, so I set out to make a wallet myself. I started my research to learn everything I could about leathercrafting, types of leather, supplies, and tools. I taught myself how to leathercraft through YouTube, purchased a leathercrafting starter kit, selected a small panel of leather, and I didn’t look back.

Before I knew it, the rest of family and friends started making requests for leather things, so I started building a higher-end tool arsenal and I graduated to hides of leather instead of small panels. Thus, Ying’s Leather Things was born.

Ever since I began leathercrafting in 2021, it has served as my creative outlet to exercise my passion for innovation, design, and making things with my hands. I am always striving to improve my products, especially when it comes to optimizing form and function so that they are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also intuitive, easy to use, and exceed your performance expectations.

I design all of my products in Adobe Illustrator and I utilize rapid prototyping tools such as laser cutters to streamline my prototyping process. Constantly thinking about how to improve my products has led me to embrace a "continuous improvement" mindset which I carry out in all aspects of my life.

Check out some of the cool stuff I make, below! You can also explore my website by clicking the button below :)

Fun Fact

A lot of people ask me where I got my logo from, and I’m proud to say my original logo (the same one I still stamp on my leather goods) was hand-drawn by me on my tablet! I didn’t originally have any kind of logo stamped on my pieces, but one of my customers suggested I make one … so I did!

I knew triangles were my favorite shape (they’re the strongest shape, after all), and I’ve always loved geometric patterns and designs. I combined that with my Chinese zodiac, which is a horse. By studying a photo of an origami horse, I drew my logo on my tablet and had a stamp made from it.

The logo you see on my website is now an Adobe Illustrator version of that original drawing, but the one stamped on my leather goods is still the hand-drawn version (it’s honestly pretty hard to tell the difference). The only truly noticeable change is in the hand-written Chinese character, which is my name in Chinese, 英 (“Ying”).