Lee River Leather

Lee River Handmade Leather

Simon Harding has been working on leather since 1969 and he founded Lee River Leather Goods in 1985 in Cork City. Simon’s ethos is to create functional products that will last forever.

Simon only works with quality natural veg-tanned leathers using traditional techniques. The leather is slow tanned. This is the traditional way down through the centuries, using natural, organic plant tannins and oils extracted from trees. This results in leather products whose character improves with age.

Lee River Leather source the veg tanned hides from a tannery in Tuscany, who preserve their artisan age old methods by handing down the practice from father to son, while developing the antique recipes with state-of-the-art technology. This tannery is a member of the Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium, adhering to ethical tanning processes.

Because the Irish climate allows for flexible moist leather, which is very suitable for high quality tanning, the hides are sourced in Ireland. No animal is killed only for its skin, rather animals destined for the food industry are almost exclusively the source of hides used for tanning.

Lee River uses leather to make functional products, which will last for many years, before finally biodegrading at the end of its life cycle. Your leather gift is truly the circle of life.