Changing Leather Industry Standards- By Courtney Simpson
- Courtney Simpson
- Jun 5
- 3 min read
At Weston Creatives, we take great pride in reducing our environmental impact while improving the efficiency of our manufacturing process. Through years of hands-on experience, we have discovered that many traditional leatherworking practices can be replaced with safer, more cost-effective alternatives without sacrificing quality. By sharing these findings, we hope to encourage meaningful conversations about how the leather industry can evolve toward more sustainable and practical standards.
When Amber and I began working with Weston Creatives, it was common practice within the leather industry to use solvent-based rubber cement to glue sheaths prior to stitching. Like many leatherworkers, we relied on Barge Cement because it was considered the industry standard. However, after relocating our operations to our home workshop in Bay City, Michigan, we quickly realized that using large quantities of solvent-based adhesives would require significant investments in ventilation systems to maintain a safe working environment.
Rather than investing heavily in additional HVAC equipment, we began exploring alternative adhesives and ultimately decided to test Aileen’s Tacky Glue. What started as an experiment has since become a permanent part of our manufacturing process.
Over the past two years, we have found that Tacky Glue offers several significant advantages. Most notably, it contains no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), making it a safer option for both workers and the environment. It is also substantially more affordable, saving our company approximately $500 annually in material costs.
The efficiency gains have been equally impressive. Because Tacky Glue is applied in a very thin layer, we use considerably less product per sheath. To date, we have produced more than 4,000 sheaths using a single gallon of Tacky Glue. By comparison, a gallon of rubber cement allowed us to produce approximately 1,500 sheaths. This represents a yield increase of roughly 167%, demonstrating that safer alternatives can often provide substantial operational benefits as well.
In addition to changing our adhesive process, we recently transitioned from Fiebing’s Pro Dye to Fiebing’s Leather Colors. While these products may appear similar at first glance, their composition and workplace impact are dramatically different.
Fiebing’s Pro Dye is a high-quality product that has been trusted by leatherworkers for years. However, it contains a significant amount of VOCs, requiring us to wear full-face respirators and maintain extensive ventilation during the dyeing process. For a Michigan-based manufacturer, this presents practical challenges during the winter months, when temperatures frequently fall below freezing and keeping workshop doors open is neither comfortable nor energy efficient.
Fiebing’s Leather Colors provided a solution that aligned more closely with our goals for workplace safety and sustainability. As a water-based product, it contains no VOCs and eliminates the need for respirators during normal use. It is also less hazardous in the event of skin contact and far easier to clean up, reducing both worker exposure and the need for harsh cleaning chemicals.
Beyond the safety benefits, the product has proven to be remarkably economical. Because Leather Colors are water-based, they can be diluted to achieve different levels of saturation and customized color blends. This flexibility allows us to extend the life of each bottle while maintaining consistent results across a wide range of products.
Under our previous process, a 32-ounce bottle of Pro Dye typically produced approximately 75 sheaths. With Leather Colors, we are consistently able to dye between 100 and 125 sheaths from the same volume, depending on the desired color intensity. This represents a yield increase of approximately 33% to 66%, creating meaningful cost savings while reducing overall material consumption.
These experiences have reinforced an important lesson: sustainable manufacturing is not always about making costly investments or completely reinventing production methods. Sometimes it is simply a matter of evaluating long-standing practices and asking whether better alternatives exist. By adopting safer adhesives and water-based dyes, we have reduced chemical exposure, lowered operating costs, improved material efficiency, and lessened the environmental impact of our workshop—all while continuing to produce high-quality leather goods.
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