LEATHERBOUNDBY STINSON C A RTER | PHOTOS BY NICK H ORWEEN F OR G E A R PATROL

Inside 's Horween 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 ." — 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 -ve- 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 ; there is also the handful in 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 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, -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 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 '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 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 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 . 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. It's by feel, by touch, by sight and Bears founder] George Halas bridged the and there's definitely a smaller yield from by sound." partnership between Wilson Sporting what they do because they don't pretty it up It was the last day of July and the ground Goods to manufacture the football and with lots of chemicals and treatments like floor of the factory, where the steerhide Horween to supply the leather for ofcial the huge tanneries that work with the giant and horsehide come in, was a staggering NFL game balls," said Kristina Peter- shoe companies do," he said. olfactory experience for the uninitiated. By son-Lohman of Wilson. As for what accounts for Horween's ev- the time they’ve completed their transfor- Wilson makes youth league, NCAA and er-increasing profile, Andreliunas said, "I mation, these skins will have worked their NFL footballs in Ada, Ohio. Each is cut and think they've done a good job of creating way to the upper floors, through , laced by hand, requiring 25 steps over 10 something special. And more and more, if trimming, re-tanning, oiling, dying, dry- to 14 days. Anywhere from 20 to 30 pairs you're going to pay good money for some-

194 L E AT HERBOUND 195 thing, you want it to be special. But at the end of the day, you've got to put your money where your mouth is, and Skip does that. "WE LIKE TO TELL A STORY, All you got to do is go up to that drying room for the horsehides… I liken it to going to the tasting room in a winery. You got these hides on old wooden , aging grace- AND THE TANNERY'S fully, or whatever they're doing up there." Alden's Bob Clark has noticed a change in the public's perception of Horween, PART OF THE STORY." whose leather they've been using in their shoes for generations: "There is a real awareness among a generation of con- sumers of Horween that really didn't exist fifteen to twenty years ago," he said. "I'm surprised to find the degree of familiarity with a particular tannery. It isn't on the name of a consumer product, it's the material that's in the product." Alden famously makes the work once worn by a young carpenter-turned-actor named Harrison Ford. On the actor's in- sistence, they became the choice boots of Indiana Jones (instead of Red Wings, as written in the script). The character ex- isted for years before the hive mind of In- dy-gear fan sites identified the boot from a shot of the sole in the scene where Indy crossed the chasm in The Last Crusade. Clark attributes Horween's newfound fame to the same collective power of the Internet. "I think that story of how people found the Indy Boot is similar to the way that people have discovered Horween as an entity," he said. The Horween name is even more of a plus for newer companies — the tannery has more name recognition than the company using its leather. Zach Weiss, cofounder of the online watch magazine and store Worn & Wound, uses Horween for the watch straps he sells. "There's an old school charm to it," said Weiss. "Even when deal- ing with them as a customer, you're getting Xeroxes of handwritten invoices and things like that." As for the power of the brand, Weiss said, "It's hard to tell if it's selling your product or not. We like to tell a story, and the tannery's part of the story." Matt Kalas, head of operations for Chica- "Shell cordovan is washed after 30 days of tanning. These hides will be shaved go-based Ashland Leather Company, gives and returned to the tanning pits for far more credit to the Horween name for another 30 days." Ashland's success: "It's huge, it's almost — NICK H ORWEEN

196 197 "YOU DON'T KEEP GOING THIS LONG WITHOUT KNOWING HOW TO ADAPT."

everything. At least initially. Who the hell's pair of shoes — this company is absolutely — adaptation in progress. Natalie was out of Ashland, right? But [people] know Horween." invaluable," Siegel said. "They're the key, or the ofce, but she later wrote to me about her Kalas's partners, his brother Phil Kalas one of the key ingredients, in the durability experience working in the family business: and Dan Cordovan (coincidentally), are both of the product and the value of the product. "In addition to feeling the connection to full-time employees at Horween. Both have I do think people are more discriminating the generations that came before me, I feel I "Retanning waterproof leather. This is worked there for a decade. They saw an op- now, and care about that, and it's really en- can add a woman's perspective to a business the washing process. Extra dye gives portunity to create a leather goods company hancing the product for the customer." that until now has been entirely run by men. the water its yellow color." based on the rising popularity of Horween As I made my way back downstairs with Our family is really close, so it hasn't been — NICK H ORWEEN and their access to it, so they started Ash- Nick as my tour guide, he looked over the too bad getting to learn and work with both land seven years ago. They make wallets seemingly ancient wooden cauldrons and my brother and dad as well. I am really ex- and men's accessories, and business is good. oil barrels and said, "The maintenance guys cited to see where we go next, and feel lucky They sell more and more overseas these days. don't get enough credit. This building is so to be a part of it all." "Horween is huge in Singapore, China, Japan old, and so much of our machinery is made There's something about a family that has –– they go crazy over Horween Shell Cordo- of wood, it's like a constant triage here, all thrived for 113 years in an honest profes- van," said Kalas. the time, to keep this up and running." sion. They've never needed to trick anyone Horween's value as a brand now extends But they are bound to this building by more to succeed in their line of work. There's a beyond the realm of leather goods, footballs than just tradition. "We can't just pick up clarity of purpose for the Horweens, which and footwear. Alan Siegel is a branding and and move, our formulas are all based on the is not to say simplicity, so much as purity. corporate-identity legend, cofounder of water we get right here," said Nick. "And our Something you can hear in their voices and iconic branding firm Siegel+Gale, where his skilled and experienced craftspeople are all see in their eyes. Skip put it better than I clients included Mastercard, Xerox and 3M. here in Chicago." ever could: More recently, he is the founder, president "You don't keep going this long without "For me, the incredible privilege of having and CEO of Siegelvision, whose clients in- knowing how to adapt," Skip had told me worked with my grandfather, father and clude National Geographic, New York Uni- earlier. I recalled his words when I ended now my son and daughter is a pure dream," versity, National Public Radio, Prudential my tour in the ofce Nick and Natalie share. he said. "I believe our 'secret' has been to and Univision. On their wall is an idea board with tacked- guide our decisions by doing things that "I think in terms of premium products — a up magazine clippings and leather swatches would make our fathers proud."

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