Auburn Leathercrafters
Full-grain leather dog collars and leashes handmade in Auburn, New York since 1950.
🇺🇸 Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Auburn Leathercrafters products are made
Everything is cut, stitched and finished in Auburn, a city of about 27,000 in Cayuga County. The company has been in the same Finger Lakes region since 1950 and describes its staff as skilled craftspeople working alongside the family.
The current owner makes collars and leashes the way his father and grandfather did before him. In a category dominated by imported nylon webbing, a multi-generational leather shop is close to an anomaly.
The company specifies full-grain leathers — the top layer of the hide, with the grain intact — rather than the split or corrected leathers that cost less and wear out faster. That choice is the reason the products can carry a hand-finished price.
The founding year, the Central New York manufacturing location and the Made in the USA claim are all published by Auburn Leathercrafters on auburndirect.com.
The story
Auburn, New York sits at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the smaller Finger Lakes, in a county of about 76,000 people. It is the kind of place where a leather shop opened in 1950 either closed thirty years ago or is still there because the family never left. Auburn Leathercrafters is the second kind.
The business has made the same category of thing for its whole life — collars, leashes, harnesses, belts — and has done it through four generations of the same family. That continuity is the product, in a sense: the skills are not documented anywhere, they are passed from one person at the bench to the next.
The catalogue has grown around the edges without abandoning the centre. Alongside the full-grain leather work there is Tuscan Italian leather, cotton rope leashes, handwoven cotton ribbon cat collars, and Sparky’s Choice — a vinyl-coated webbing that stays flexible below zero and does not fray at the edges the way standard nylon does.
Why they matter
Pet supplies are one of the most thoroughly imported categories in American retail. A dog collar is a strip of material and a buckle; there is nothing about it that requires a domestic factory, and almost nobody keeps one. Auburn Leathercrafters has kept one for seventy-five years.
Buying from a manufacturer rather than a brand changes what you are paying for. Auburn sells through independent pet boutiques and its own direct site, which means the retail price funds a workshop in Cayuga County rather than a marketing budget and a container from overseas.
It is also a genuinely small business — the kind that gets talked about in the abstract during Small Business Week and rarely gets bought from. This one has a street address in upstate New York and a fourth generation still cutting leather in it.
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Browse Auburn Leathercrafters dog collars and leashes stocked on the Buy American Campaign store.
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Frequently asked questions
Are Auburn Leathercrafters products made in the USA?
Yes. The company states on its own website that it has been manufacturing its dog collars, leashes, harnesses and toys in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York State since 1950.
Where is Auburn Leathercrafters located?
In Auburn, New York — a city of about 27,000 in Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
How long has Auburn Leathercrafters been in business?
Since 1950. It is family owned and operated, with four generations having worked in the business.
What leather does Auburn Leathercrafters use?
Full-grain leathers, including Tuscan Italian leather on some collections, plus cotton rope and a vinyl-coated webbing called Sparky’s Choice for waterproof and odour-resistant collars.