Blog « Horween Leather Company

Thank You.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2016 // By nick

Horween Leather, 1940

Horween Leather, 2016

Thank you.

It is hard to believe 2015 is in the history books and that from our founding in 1905 Horween Leather has been around for 110 years.
We want everyone we work with to know how much they are appreciated. We take none of it for granted. So, whether you are working in our factory, or supplying us with hides or oils or shipping boxes. If you are a producer of footballs or shoes or bags or straps. And especially if you buy any one of these fine products – you have our gratitude.

To Isidore, who founded our company with the idea of only the best. To Arnold Sr. and Arnold Jr. carrying on the traditions and evolving and growing with the times to get us to where we are today. And to Nick and Natalie, the next generation, who have joined the company and whose capable hands will help carry us into the future. Thank you.

All the best for 2016,
Skip Horween

On Leather Quality and Properties

Monday, September 22nd, 2014 // By nick

A customer recently shared a styleforum post with me after mentioning that there has been some discussion surrounding leather quality, especially with regards to “break.” Break can be loosely defined as the physical and cosmetic character leather exhibits when the grain side of a piece of leather is creased or folded back against itself. Break is generally considered to be an important factor in footwear, as the vamp (the area over the forefoot and toes) is folded and creased against itself during each step. There are many times when break is not a consideration, such as in a belt, as the leather will never be manipulated in the same way as a piece of footwear. “Good” break presents as tight creasing, and exists across a broad spectrum. Every piece of leather will break differently given the inherent natural qualities of the hide.

Break is technically the de-lamination of the grain from the layers below. The grain is a harder, more tightly organized, fiber structure than the layers even just below. These different layers have different elasticities. Further, the outer/grain and inner/flesh portions of the leather are traveling marginally different distances when flexed in a vamp. The effect is that the grain either keeps up and bends with the layers below, or it is forced outward (since it is firmer/denser and bending around a tighter radius than flesh). The grain is always eventually forced outward and the visual and structural result is break.

There are many factors that determine how leather will crease when used in a piece of footwear: