Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Bridges.
Nate, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2016, a group of friends had planned a short road trip to Nashville, TN. While we were exploring the city, I saw unique looking leather goods in a store and had never seen anything like it. The only leather goods that I had been familiar with were mass-produced goods in large department stores, completely naive to the reality that people today were continuing the trade using traditional crafting methods. I spoke to the store owner and she explained that this guy was a vendor of hers who handmade leather goods in Tennessee. Immediately intrigued by the idea that someone was making leather goods by hand, one at a time, I asked her for more info on the maker. Quickly after returning home, I started researching the trade and everything to do with it. I picked a business name with the brainstorming help of a friend who had written down a ton of “outdoorsy” words and Alpine was the one I chose without too much thought and a company was born. As exciting as it was at the time, I still had learning to do because well, I had never made anything from the leather before in my life.
On my days off from college, I would research and start buying the beginner tools that I needed. With the help of YouTube and a local leather worker, Textures of the Soul, I was ready to start making products. I started with a simple wallet and a single keychain style to sell to friends and family. From there, I started offering new products as my crafting skills improved. I love looking at the comparison in stitching from day one to now. I started looking for the finest leather and materials used in the leather trade, which ones I enjoyed working with, and which would offer my customers a high-quality product to last a lifetime. My shop is a one-man shop, offering online sales, hosting pop-ups throughout the US, and offering custom leather goods at wholesale pricing throughout the world. Dropping out of college wasn’t the plan, but I left to pursue my small business full-time and have been doing so for the last year and a half. Every summer, for the last three summers I take leather goods to a summer camp in Scotland that my church has been partnered with for 13 years, I plan to continue diversifying our product line and finding new materials to work with. Alpine is three years old and I look forward to what the future holds. Our values are community, craftsmanship, and adventure We strive to build a community around our goods and to share in the adventures of our Alpine family.
Has it been a smooth road?
If anyone has had a smooth road, I would be surprised!! HA. There are always a set of challenges that we must choose to deal with one way or another. My road hasn’t been terrible, but some of the struggles are ones I am sure most creatives and small business owners may be able to relate to. For my entirety of Alpines existence, space has been the biggest issue. I was always crafting out of a small bedroom or small space, a bedroom shared by three people for a YEAR. Luckily, just three months ago, I got married (WOOHOO) and we moved into a home with an RV sized garage that is dedicated to Alpine. Another struggle along the way was money because a nineteen-year-old paying for college tends not to have that! Leather and the tools involved are expensive, but luckily I have had many supporters surrounding me that helped in this area and to them, I owe many thanks for where Alpine has made it. I also had a semi-failed Kickstarter campaign in 2016 where I raised roughly six of the ten thousand I had set out to raise. I self-funded the rest. This money was crucial to Alpines beginning growth but left me unable to do all I had hoped to. Since the Kickstarter, I have been able to do more and more of those.
What else should our readers know?
Alpine is mainly focused on hosting pop-ups throughout the US and offering custom leather goods to businesses. These are the two main ways we conduct business because they are the ways we can best build our amazing community of people face to face. We offer our goods via our website alpineleather.co as well. As a company, I am most proud of the way we connect with people and build relationships with our customers. It feels more meaningful when you build relationships with the people buying from you because then they feel more like friends and family supporting rather than simply a dollar amount coming my way. I think the way we engage our community is what sets us apart, we have hung out with customers and had some stay in our home. A customer turned friend is valuable to us.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The leather crafting community or industry is a tight-knit group of people. Just last week District Leather Supply, a local leather supply shop in ATL, hosted makers meet up and brought in roughly 60 makers from throughout the country to share knowledge, tips, and celebrate each other’s growth. Over the next 5-10 years, the community is headed deeper into a relational route. There is enough success for all and as a small business owner, we all long to see that success in the leather craft.
Contact Info:
- Website: alpineleather.co
- Email: alpineleatherco@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alpineleatherco/
Image Credit:
Alice Murphy, Taylor Weitzel, Rebecca Vanderbeck, Kaitlynn Rost, David Yarbrough
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
