Inside Chicago's Horween Leather Company — the Fifth-Generation Family-Run Tannery Turning One of the World's Oldest Materials Into a Global Brand
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LEATHERBOUNDBY STINSON C A RTER | PHOTOS BY NICK H ORWEEN F OR G E A R PATROL Inside Chicago's Horween Leather Company — the fifth-generation family-run tannery turning one of the world's oldest materials into a global brand. "Gregorio completes the final shaving on shell cordovan." — NICK H ORWEEN 190 ISSUE SEVEN 191 or all of the influence the building has had cessfully launched on the recognition of his father's and his grandfather's before Fon major league sports, the military and the Horween name alone, and its leather him. There are black-and-white cutouts of the makers of some of the most stylish remains a staple ingredient for longtime both Horween forebears on the wood-ve- shoes and accessories on the market, Hor- sporting goods clients like Wilson, Spald- neer walls of the ofce –– his grandfather ween Leather Company's headquarters is ing and Rawlings; there is also the handful in boots and spurs, his father bare-chested easy to miss. of shoemakers, such as Wolverine, Quoddy, in boxing gloves. His great-grandfather, Isa- Wedged between train tracks and the Crockett & Jones, Timberland and Nike. dore, looks on from a family portrait across North Branch of the Chicago River, a for- The luck of a trend colliding with the tried the room. On another wall is a framed 1920 merly industrial area now encroached and true has extended Horween's populari- Rose Bowl poster, a game Skip's grandfather upon by the likes of Best Buy, sits the ty from manufacturer to consumer, but the and great-uncle both played in. Behind a five-story, 200,000-square-foot tannery. source of its greatness is far deeper... it's massive wood desk sits Skip's one-of-a-kind Its aging brick façade is camouflaged by something in the water, and something in swivel chair, covered in football leather. the surroundings, and its sheer size dwarfs the blood. "If you do something long enough, you're the white block-letter signage hiding like a My tour there started at a wooden slab bound to be an overnight success eventual- bumper sticker on a battleship. You would door, which leads to a small staircase with ly," Skip said, wryly. He still takes the train never know, looking at the place, that it linoleum steps and dark, oak-veneer walls. to work every day from the suburbs; it stops houses one of America's oldest continuous- The waiting room at the top of the stairs is at the station across the street. His 34-year- ly running tanneries. Or that every NFL no wider than outstretched arms, and it's old son, Nick, meanwhile, lives downtown, football begins here, as do all NBA game furnished with two wooden benches and a balls. (Consider the hands touched by those pair of knee-high ashtrays –– brave stow- two accounts alone.) aways from a past era. "IF YOU DO SOMETHING Over the past decade, this space — where I knocked on a tiny frosted-glass window. the 113-year-old company has been since Moments later, it slid open and a face ap- LONG ENOUGH, YOU'RE its founder Isadore Horween relocated it peared: there in 1920 — has seen what was once a "Sign in here," she said, pointing to a clip- BOUND TO BE AN mere supplier of materials turn into a glob- board with a Bic under a rubber band. "Skip ally recognized brand without allocating a will be right with you." OVERNIGHT SUCCESS dime to marketing. That's thanks, in part, Arnold "Skip" Horween III, 62, is the cur- to an intersection of uncompromising rent paterfamilias, and the fourth man of quality, a good story and Made-in-America his line to preside over the company. On EVENTUALLY." cachet — a trinity of timely characteristics the day of my visit, he was dressed in a blue and in contrast to his father's blue-on-blue for an age when consumers increasingly work shirt with several pens stowed in work duds, wore tapered jeans on the day of use the tech at their fingertips to verify and the chest pocket; he also wore work boots, my visit. Nick's ofcial title is Vice President, celebrate the pedigree and provenance of a belt and a watch strap, all made of his "But our titles don't really mean anything. their purchases. namesake leather. We all run it together," he said. We includes Leather goods startups have been suc- Skip led me to the corner ofce — once his 28-year-old sister, Natalie. "Felix applies Venetian Shoe Cream to shell cordovan prior to the glazing process." — NICK H ORWEEN 192 ISSUE SEVEN 193 Perhaps what's so appealing about Hor- ing... a 30-day process for their Chromexcel of hands touch each football in the course ween is how little it's changed as the busi- leather, and a six-month process for their of its construction, and the factory makes ness has grown. Isadore Horween immi- signature shell cordovan, a select cut from about 700,000 footballs per year. grated to America from Ukraine in 1893, a horse's hindquarters that costs 10 times "We're just a component," said Nick. "It's changing the '-witz' at the end of his name more than anything else they sell. an important component, but we need the to '-ween.' His sons, Ralph and Arnold, "We're not going to change the things that Aldens, the Allen Edmonds… all our cli- served in the Navy during World War I and got us here," Skip said. "Our cordovan, that ents. We're just part of the story." then went to Harvard, where they were formula is what it is, and we still run it the But it hasn't been all fun, games and both starters on the 1920 football team way that Isadore ran it. And Chromexcel shoes. One of the strangest orders the Hor- that beat the University of Oregon in front [is] the same way." weens ever filled was during the first Gulf of 30,000 people in Pasadena. Arnold was Horween Shell Cordovan has a maximum War. "When that started, we got an emer- the Crimson's first Jewish football captain. yield of one pair of shoes per horse. The gency request from the Army [contractor] Both brothers played NFL football for the "shell" refers to a very specific oval area for leather gaskets for all the tank peri- Arizona Cardinals (formerly the Chicago where the horse's hip bones wear against scopes," Skip said. Given the importance of Cardinals) while they worked for the fam- the hide and change its physical properties tanks in that conflict, the contribution was ily business –– Arnold as the president and over time, creating a unique leather that not insignificant. Ralph (who also enjoyed successful law Alden Shoes' Vice President of Sales, Bob These days, new clients attracted to Hor- career) as the chief manufacturing execu- Clark, described as "beautiful, supple, du- ween's soaring popularity means an in- tive. Arnold's son, Skip's father, also played rable… it learns your foot shape as you wear crease in the discussions about how doing football at Harvard and then served in the business with them is a little diferent than Army before taking his turn at the helm with other tanneries. of the company. Skip became president in "THERE ISN'T AN ELEC- "When they get a hide with an aniline 2003 and his blue work shirt, with its chest finish — which just means no pigment or pocket full of pens, is the same as the one TRONIC SETTING THAT paint, which is what we do — they lay it his father wore at work. down, they can see some scratches and During my interview with Skip, a man YOU CAN USE. IT'S BY some bug bites… we're acknowledging that named Ike Davis entered the ofce. He it's a natural product. This was an animal. started working at Horween in 1953, FEEL, BY TOUCH, BY And each animal had its own experiences," eventually overseeing the cordovan de- Nick said. "Our reputation is probably that partment before retiring in 1998, after 45 SIGHT AND BY SOUND." we're difcult that way." years. "I've known Ike my entire working "You learn to hate barbed wire in this life," Skip said. "I foolishly let him retire the shoes and becomes something of a cus- business," Skip explained. twenty years ago. But I was able to con- tom fit. It's a very special leather." Quoddy, the Maine-based maker of hand- vince him to come back once a week to ad- Leather with the telltale pebbling of foot- made shoes, has been using Horween vise on shell cordovan." balls has a large presence in the factory. leather for over 20 years, warts and all. "It's Davis came in to report that he could tell Nick pointed to stacks of hides destined like having Brembo brakes on your car, it from the sound of one of the shaving ma- for gridiron greatness, in several colors, means you only use the best," said Quod- chines that it needed more grease. "He can saying, "That's the Nike color, that's NCAA dy's president, John Andreliunas. "There's listen to one of the jacks going and under- and that's NFL." Their partnership with definitely some waste in what they send you stand that the pressure's right," Skip said. the NFL is almost as old as the league itself. because the cow got bit, or the cow grew a "There isn't an electronic setting that you "When the NFL was created, [Chicago weird way and there's weird stretch marks, can use.