Life is complicated enough. And of course the unexpected happens all the time. Having been so blessed with two children my wife and I decided to have one more. But then the unexpected happened. After our 3rd child (Maxwell) came into our lives in the fall of 2015 we knew I needed to shift gears. Max came to us with the gift of Down Syndrome, which will continue to be a massive learning curve for us. In February of 2016 he needed open-heart surgery. All of this has changed the "normal rhythms" of life for our entire family. Thus the need to make some more changes to adapt. So with the hope that I can not only be more available to my family, but also incorporate my family into helping produce and ship these handcrafted bowties, Madison Street Leather was born. $1 from the sale of every bowtie goes to the Down Syndrome Guild of Kansas City to help families with a child who has DS. So you can not only look good, but feel good about what you purchase.

And it makes perfect sense that this should be a family ordeal. My father is a gifted leather craftsman who has turned his humble crafting into a considerable leather business www.leatherworksminnesota.com He has afforded me much time to pick his brain, as well as learn how to hone my skills, and even partnering with us early on to help promote our product. So on all sides, Madison Street Leather is a family venture. For that we are immensely grateful.


We hand-select all our hides so we can be sure of the quality. After cutting our bow ties, we bevel the edges, and then we put a high quality leather balm on there. After the drying is finished, we rub them with sheep wool to give it that beautiful shine. Then we add a water-based, natural gum based edge slicking to give the edges that professional, finished look unlike anything else out there. We then measure placement of holes for the stitch pattern we have selected and punch holes into the leather. Then we place each bow tie individually in the stitching saddle and hand-stitch it with a beautiful wax thread. The finishing touch of a "keeper" over the center of the bow tie is placed around it and then a rivet is hammered into it by hand, before the strap is fed underneath to make your bow tie READY TO WEAR.