Main Street Forge
Full-grain American steerhide belts and wallets, built by small US shops for two friends who went looking for them.
🏭 American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Main Street Forge products are made
The company origin story is unusually candid. It describes starting out sourcing from China, never feeling right about it, then trying to switch and finding that most American manufacturers would not return the call because the orders were too small. The breakthrough was flea markets and trade shows, and one-man shops willing to take a chance.
The phrase in its own telling is “reaching out to some American manufacturers to help us make our products.” That is a contract relationship, not a factory floor. It also means no plant, city or state is ever named, which is the single weakest field in this profile and the honest reason the emblem is the qualified one.
The Chicago Screws in the hardware range carry the word IMPORTED in the listing, and most of the buckle and hardware listings carry no origin line at all. The home page sentence about the All American Belt, where the buckle, the leather and even the screws are called American, is scoped to that one belt.
The Federal Trade Commission reserves an unqualified Made in USA claim for goods that are all or virtually all of domestic origin. Main Street Forge makes a hand-made-in-the-USA claim across most of its range but labels part of its hardware line Imported and names no manufacturing location. This profile therefore carries the American Manufacturing emblem, and buyers should check the individual listing.
The story
Main Street Forge was started by two friends, Billy and Kyle, who have known each other since they were fourteen and describe themselves as lifelong entrepreneurs. They got into e-commerce in 2014 and did what nearly everyone does first: found a supplier overseas and ordered samples. It never sat right. They had grown up in the suburbs of Detroit, where, as they put it, Made in the USA is a big deal and some friends and family will not let a foreign car into the driveway.
Switching turned out to be harder than deciding to switch. The company says most American manufacturers would not return their calls, because a small order from two unknowns was not worth the setup. So they stopped chasing large factories and started going to flea markets and trade shows instead, looking for small shops and one-man businesses that would take a chance on them. That is where the first American-made products came from.
What Main Street Forge sells now is full-grain American steerhide: belts in dress, everyday and heavy duty weights, bifold and front pocket wallets, valet trays, keychains and small everyday carry goods. The company motto is that they still make them like they used to, and the business remains a small friends-and-family operation.
Why they matter
Leather goods are one of the categories where the word handmade does the most work and means the least. Main Street Forge is worth featuring because its account of how it got to American manufacturing is specific and unflattering: it admits it started overseas, admits American shops turned it down, and explains what it did instead.
The company also draws a line most brands blur. It labels a hardware item Imported rather than letting the belt halo cover it. Half its catalogue carries an explicit origin line and the other half stays quiet rather than claiming. That asymmetry is what an honest catalogue looks like.
The gap is transparency of a different kind. Main Street Forge publishes a post office box and no street address, names no manufacturing partner, and its privacy contact email belongs to a sister brand. None of that undermines the origin claim, but a buyer should know it, and a manufacturer reading this profile will know exactly what would strengthen it.
Shop Main Street Forge products
The Buy American Campaign store stocks fourteen Main Street Forge items, all from the leather families the US-origin claim covers: the All American and Classic Everyday belts, the Executive dress belt, the Icon belt, bifold and slim front pocket wallets in Rio Latigo brown, midnight black and tobacco, leather valet trays and a quick-detach leather keychain.
Shop all Main Street Forge products →Visit Main Street Forge website →
Main Street Forge questions
Where are Main Street Forge products made?
In the United States. The company states it crafts its belts, wallets and accessories by hand in the USA, but it does not own a factory and does not name a manufacturing partner, city or state. Its own origin story describes sourcing from small American shops.
Is everything Main Street Forge sells American-made?
No. The Chicago Screws in the hardware line are labelled Imported, and most hardware listings carry no origin statement. Twenty-five of the fifty listings on the company store carry a US-origin line, across belts, wallets, trays and small goods.
What leather does Main Street Forge use?
Full-grain American steerhide. The company describes its All American Belt as using American leather with an American-made buckle, and positions full-grain as the reason the belts are meant to outlast a stitched-and-bonded alternative.
Who runs Main Street Forge?
Two lifelong friends, Billy and Kyle, operating through Relentless Drive Inc., which also runs the sister brand Relentless Tactical. Surnames and a founding year for the brand are not published on the company own site.