It’s been a really busy week here at the Leather Satchel Co. headquarters, we’ve launched our Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign and celebrated our 50th birthday, all within the space of two days. And we’ve been completely blown away by all of the support that we’ve received so far!
So, a little bit about our Kickstarter campaign… What we’re doing, is raising £50,000 to fund an online customisation tool, which customers can use to design their own unique satchels. There’s infinite options for what we can do to personalise bespoke satchels, and this is our way of showing people that and transforming their unique designs into a reality.
Our campaign went live on Kickstarter on Tuesday, the best way to describe the feeling in the room was nervous excitement, we’ve got a lot riding on this campaign and so far we’re way ahead of schedule. We’ve got the Kickstarter page on a screen in the office and we’re all constantly updating it.
The day after the campaign went live, we threw a big 50th birthday party in Liverpool. It was exciting, it was hectic and to be honest, it felt a little bit strange to be leading the celebrations, as I’ve only been director of the company for a small period of its history. My uncles who started the Leather Satchel Co. back in 1966 don’t like to shout about what they do. If they could hide away in a workshop and make stuff, then they would be happy making a living from that, to celebrate the business is not really in their nature. And for me to suggest throwing a birthday party, when I’ve never had one in the past seems weird, when actually they were the ones at the helm for 43 years.
We were certainly surprised at how many people were interested in the Leather Satchel Co. after a good few hundred turned up to celebrate with us. It was pretty amazing that all of these people are interested in our brand and what we’re doing, and that’s just in Liverpool alone. You naturally have doubts before an big event like that; because we’re a niche brand, the natural thoughts of ‘there’s not many people interested in what we do’, ‘nobody’s going to turn up’ run through your mind… But they did, and I had to take a step back and I thought to myself ‘wow, this is pretty amazing.’
Now, it’s back to reality and catching up on all of the work that we put aside to get the party organised. I’ve got lots of press interviews lined up over the following week, I had an interview with a journalist in Amsterdam yesterday, I’m going to be doing some podcasts – my diary is quite packed.
As well as our big 50th birthday celebration, we’re doing an exclusive satchel design every week, and we’re currently in the middle of producing this week’s design. So, we’re hoping to have that out early next week, then we’re going to come up with a new design every week, in celebration of our Golden Anniversary. We’re really looking forward to showing off what we can do here at the Leather Satchel Co.
Keith
#MyBagMyWayMyStory
