The story of Doatyleather
While in the Navy during Viet Nam I was serving on a small Destroyer. We were at sea for 63 days without seeing land and I needed something to do. When we pulled into port I went to the hobby shop and a Tandy Leathercraft starter kit caught my interest. I studied the book that came with it and taught myself how to tool leather while on the ship. When I got out of the Navy in 1971 I continued with sales to family, friends and co-workers while working in an iron foundry in Eastern Pa. When the foundry closed and I lost my job in 1993 my wife backed me with the idea of going into business for myself. I had been doing craft shows since. I also rented space in various craft malls with limited success. I heard about Etsy and decided to give it a try and it has worked out great for me with limited items in my shop. I am cutting back on the craft shows and hope to add many more items in my shop in the near future.
I had a gentleman contact a local gun shop about a case to carry an epi pen and they referred him to me which got me started making the various epi pen cases which has also gotten me orders for cases for insulin pumps and other medical cases. The hot sauce holster came about back in 1995 when I had a customer ask about that since he was leaving his hot sauce at the table when they would leave a restaurant.