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Kindness Matters
In a month of love, we are taking a step back and focusing in on a slice of love, Kindness. Kindness is being friendly, generous, and considerate. It is not really about big epic moments, sometimes it is the fact that the action was so small which makes it impactful. Some tiny act of kindness could easily be skipped over and no one would ever notice if you don’t do it – no one would say anything. So the fact that it is unasked for and unexpected – is what makes it so huge.
One way Townsend is taking kindness action is spreading kindness throughout our team and our community. We are placing extra focus on our usual random acts of kindness through February, looking for and sharing stories of the everyday kindness moments that make such a difference in our lives. But we also are putting collective kindness effort into supporting our local Code Blue Shelter program.
The Code Blue Shelter provides services and shelter to our local homeless community whenever temperatures drop below 32 degrees. The shelter also provides hot showers, clothing, blankets, toiletry kits, snack foods, water, and juice on-site. It is all volunteer-run and needs community support to stay available, which is critical for our area as we have had days and days of frigid temperatures in the low ‘teens.
Our team has set up contactless collections sites around our facility where everyone and anyone can help us collect needed items, which we will donate to the Code Blue program. We are collecting everything from baby wipes, chap-stick, and toilet paper, to socks, gloves, and used coats. If you have any questions or want to help, reach out to our kindness-organizers Gabby, Kayla, Pamela, and Carrie. info@townsendleather.com
In this time and in this weather, kindness can do more than just warm a heart – these simple acts of kindness in collecting items for our fellow humans in need can warm hands and feet and souls.
Our warming kind acts this month spill over into leather and design as well as we celebrate the warm and elegant hues of February winter, warms fireplaces, chocolate, and love – enchanting reds, deep maroons, blush pinks, and glamourous golds draw people together and stimulate conversation.
We hope you will join us, this month, in spreading kindness to those around you – near or far. Share with us your Random Acts of Kindness by tagging us on Instagram and using #TownsendLeather. Kindness often costs nothing but means everything to those who receive it.
We also love to look back on love, take a stroll in the wayback machine with us to see past celebrations of love and February. Like these two posts of color and leather:
Or a couple of past giveaways Valentine’s Day celebrations
(try your loving luck and see if you can still get a prize by following the directions :) )
Or just dig into some past love, love for our region and of course, LOVE OF LEATHER…
And of course, when you need a beautiful place to rest your eyes with your love of leather, visit this link to find a downloadable desktop image:
https://townsendleather.com/20-21
From the Albany Business Review:
https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2020/12/09/townsend-leather.html
6 Best Places to Work wins
What’s something interesting about your company that most people don’t know?
Any celebrity with a private jet, any musician with a fancy tour RV, any jet-setter in a high-end hotel, any regular person with New Balance shoes is almost definitely touching leather on the seats or their feet that was hand-crafted by leather experts from Townsend Leather.
What are the biggest wins or accomplishments for your company over the past year?
The biggest win is that we have been able to not just maintain but to thrive through all of this. We had to shut down, we had to lay off some employees, we lost money and time …but we came back. We now have all our employees back, we are running at full capacity, we have new projects and new customers. We had team members suffer unreal challenges, but the rest of the team came together in support and lifted them up. We have not had anyone get sick and have found a sense of pride in our new cleaning practices, daily health assessments, temp checks, and all the many steps we are taking to keep everyone safe. It is not a chore to endure, but rather a point of pride and success.
The biggest win is that we have been able to see who we truly are. Who our team truly is, and the sight of it, through all the pain, uncertainty, and struggles was beautiful. Our team is care-filled, focused on each other, focused on building for the future — together. Last year with our 50th-anniversary celebrations and all the fun and excitement of opening a new building we got to see who we are at our best — fun, joyful, high-fiving, community-driven … This past year, we got to see who we are at our worst, and it was humbling and wonderful to see that we are a team that can withstand challenges, and in fact thrive through them with our family-like attitude of togetherness and heart.
A Link Extravaganza!
As a way to look back on our 2020 at Townsend Leather, we offer this quick lookbook of sorts, a glance at some significant shares of Townsend’s from our 2020 year… a PDF bursting with information and beauty at what we do and who we are.
In this clickable photomag, you will see a message from our President Jared Eckler, some New Product Launches like our Into the Wild Mini Collection and new Manchester In-Stock, a peek into the beauty of our Instagram account, a nod to the many new capabilities we have refined this year (Digital Printing, Quilting, Laser Etching, Enhanced Embossing…) as well as the many new machines and improvements we’ve made throughout our buildings and processes. You’ll also get to see even more of who we are through our library of YouTube Videos, awards, and Facebook fun. And of course, through the craziness of our collective 2020, we have still been finding ways to keep our Socially Distant Social Club active, and you’ll see all the shared items here, from recipes to books. It’s been a strange and full year, incredibly difficult in many ways, but beautiful and wonderful in others.
Join us on this little clickable trek through the past few months. And again, thank you.
View in our PDF viewer below, or click here to download.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://townsendleather.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Townsend-Leather-Year-End-Link-Extravaganza-2020_a.pdf”]
A Gift To You
Desktop and Mobile Backgrounds
We hope to spread joy and inspiration as we make your digital workspace even more beautiful with custom-crafted computer desktop backgrounds. A leathery image to serve as a place for you to rest your eyes, and stare off into, while contemplating your complicated work.
To get the full-size image:
- CLICK on the image below ↓ (desktop or mobile version)
then - RIGHT-CLICK on the image that opens in your new tab
- and SELECT “SAVE IMAGE AS”.
- Now the image is on your computer and ready for you to set it as your desktop image.
For any Technical/Download questions or issues, email us at:
Townsend.Leather@gmail.com
For any product, Townsend, leather, samples, just-want-to-chat… questions or issues, email us at:
info@townsendleather.com
Computer Desktop Background:
Mobile Background:
Townsend Leather has been focused on feeling thankful for a while now, and this week gives us even more reason to feel all the love, joy, and thanks that is bubbling inside of the collective us.
We recently got word that we have once again been acknowledged as a Best Place To Work for 2020 by Albany Business Review (more to come on that soon :) ).
But, even more important than awards, we are endlessly thankful that we get to do the work we do. That we get to work with the people we do. That we get to work with and for the customers we do.
Especially this year, we are thankful that through smart planning, careful attention, and an incredible team of dedicated Partners, we are growing.
We are open. We are staying open and we are strong.
As the pandemic rages on, we know how important it is to keep everyone safe, healthy, and keep things moving forward. We are thankful we have been able to get equipment, PPE, and new procedures in place and have them nearly perfected through months of routine now. We are thankful that we have been able to utilize the talents and passions of our team to make sure that we are keeping ourselves and our community safe, doing great work, and putting ourselves in a position where we are actually growing.
Townsend Leather is hiring as we grow for the future.
We are looking forward to growth over the coming months as we have invested in new machinery and are always putting effort to continuously improve our process and products. 2021 looks to be a big year for us as we take on new projects and push out even greater crafted leathers. We are looking right now, to grow our team by a large handful of awesome Partners, and we know that is a unique position to be in through all that is going on this year.
So, this season, we look to spread joy. Joy for the future, joy for the things we have overcome, joy for the challenges we know we will face – but can do so with the support of each other. Joy to you, our customers, families, fans, and friends. Because of you, we are able to come to work each day and do the craft we love. We are able to make the world’s finest upholstery and shoe leather with passion, because of the people we do it with and the people we do it for. So, thank you!
Thank you.
Shining a spotlight on Sneakers…
About 1 year ago, a video production crew working for National Geographic spent some time at Townsend Leather in and out and all around our buildings, people, and production… so they could capture some special moments of the hand-crafted greatness that goes into New Balance sneakers.
Townsend Leather is proud of our Made-In-The-USA Partnership with Wolverine Worldwide Leathers, to provide the pigskin leather hides that go to New Balance’s Made in the USA line of products.
We are equally proud to see some of our work and our Partners featured on the small screen in this beautifully produced documentary series.
TOWNSEND LEATHER FEATURED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SERIES : ‘MADE IN A DAY’
Townsend Leather, a third-generation, U.S.-based family business, has long been known for manufacturing of upholstery hides and decorative leathers, supplying the A & D Residential, Hospitality, Home Furnishings, Corporate, Business, and Commercial Aviation, Motorcoach, and Yachting markets internationally. In 2014, they began to diversify and partner with Wolverine and New Balance to provide pigskin leather for shoes.
Townsend Leather with the partnership of Wolverine Worldwide Leather provides pigskin leather for many of New Balance MADE IN THE USA lines, namely their bestselling shoe, the 990 Running Shoe. Kevin McCoy, New Balance Vice President of Manufacturing says, “the 990 has evolved throughout the years, but the pigskin nubuck is what’s iconic about the product.”
To be considered a Made in the US product, the shoe contains a domestic value of 70% or more. Townsend Leather currently produces 120 different colors and is continuously improving and working on more formulations in their in-house lab. Throughout the production process, the leather is truly crafted by hand in coloring the skins, toggling or stretching the skins to dry and produce elasticity, milling to soften, hand trimming and buffing, along with inspecting each skin and sorting them into grades. Townsend Leather ships 10,000 skins a week, which equals out to about 2.8 million square feet of leather each year.
The episode including Johnstown-based Townsend focuses on New Balance’s Made in the USA line, including its best-selling 990 Running Shoe, for which Townsend provides the pigskin leather through their partnership with their customer Wolverine.
National Geographic’s 12-part series, “Made In A Day” spotlights 12 different companies still manufacturing and delivering top of the line products, all in America.
“In this brand-new series, we (National Geographic) unveil the incredible scale and human ingenuity behind the manufacture and transportation of some of America’s biggest, global brands.”
Some of the iconic brands include Gibson Guitars, Tabasco, Jack Daniels, and Tesla. The National Geographic film crew, based out of the UK, spent a day at Townsend Leather’s facility in fall 2019 filming from 6 am to 6 pm each process that goes into the finished pigskin leather product, as well as interviewed partners on the why and how each step is performed. The film crew also spent time at the New Balance flagship factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts where they manufacture around 6,000 pairs of sneakers daily. The entire episode is 22 minutes long and the feature on Townsend Leather accounts for about 5 minutes.
Townsend Leather takes pride in our employees and the high-quality products we create; we are excited to share with the world a peek inside their passion.
![Townsend Leather 2020 4th o July Made In The USA.jpg[98]](https://i0.wp.com/townsendleather.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Townsend-Leather-2020-4th-o-July-Made-In-The-USA.jpg98.jpg?w=322&h=230&ssl=1 "Townsend Leather 2020 4th o July Made In The USA.jpg[98]")
![National Geographic Made in a Day Thumbnail download.jpeg[34]](https://i0.wp.com/townsendleather.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/National-Geographic-Made-in-a-Day-Thumbnail-download.jpeg34.jpeg?w=281&h=211&ssl=1 "National Geographic Made in a Day Thumbnail download.jpeg[34]")
See the Times Union Article on the episode here: https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Local-company-featured-in-National-Geographic-15629042.php
See the Leader-Herald Article on the episode here: https://www.leaderherald.com/news/local-news/2020/08/townsend-leather-featured-on-national-geographic/
For more on the Made In a Day Series and Townsend Leather’s contribution to the New Balance Sneaker, stream the episode here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/made-in-a-day/episode-guide/season-01/episode-05-sneakers/vdka19564864.
Each year Townsend Leather anxiously awaits the NBAA conference.
But, with it being canceled this year, we still wanted to reach out to you, our customers, our friends. And let you know the part we miss most is being there, Together with you.
Since we can’t say it to you in person, the above video is a little heartfelt Video Greeting Card from us just to say, sincerely, THANK YOU! Thank you for the fun, the relationships, and the inspiration.
We look forward to being there with you again next year, but until then – we say ‘cheers!’ to you and to the future.
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH US
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/townsendleather/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TownsendLeatherCompany
Or Email: info@townsendleather.com
TO STAY INFORMED on our Coming Soon: Virtual Tradeshow Booth, showcasing New Leathers and beautiful displays. And all the other passion-filled leather-loving things that Townsend will be doing and offering the rest of this year.
It has been such an interesting, challenging, and yet rewarding year for us. Take a peek at just a few of the significant focuses of ours over the past few months. All done with our heart and gratitude for you in mind.
Click any of the images below to learn more. Or email us at: info@townsendleather.comto get samples, get details, schedule a Zoom call for in-depth learning, or just tell us what you love about leather.
As a gesture of our gratitude for you, for being with us through this year and helping us grow over the last 50, we want to offer you a chance for a Thank You Gift.
Please visit our SURPRISE page to see how to get your Surprise Thank You Gift, from our hearts to yours.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You are a wonderful human.
Townsend Leather Partners, Customer, Friends, Families, and Fans have so much to be thankful for. See just a few of the messages of gratitude below, and whenever you feel inspired to spread joy and smiles and good vibes and good feels out into the world through messages of ‘thanks’, you can add yours to the list through the simple form. You can leave off your name and info and just submit anonymously if you like, we just want to gather messages of thanks, from near and far.
Thank YOU for doing this. Thank YOU for expressing your thanks and gratitude. Thank YOU for taking one minute to share.
68 entries.
I love having a partnership with Townsend. We all make a great team.
Thank you for your continued support and great service !
Townsend Leather is a family owned business who has made me feel like an adopted child. No request has gone unfulfilled and every attempt has been made to seal the deal where each party feels acknowledged and heard.
Thank you, thank you Townsend Leather!
Thank you, thank you Townsend Leather!
Everyone I've worked with at Townsend brings me joy! Thank you for being such a great company. Wishing you a golden season too!
Townsend support has always been excellent! Thank you!
Working with Townsend is such a pleasure and I love the idea of this Thank you book. It makes me so happy to see all these grateful comments and to realize the joy that this company spreads.
We are thankful for Sherry and the great company of Townsend!
You have a wonderful team to work with.
From GTI, Just Plane Great!
Your "joy" billboard worked! Definitely brought me joy, lol!
I saw that you helped give gifts to Johsntown school kids who need them. That is incredible. you all have such big hearts.
This place and all the people at it bring me such joy! Thanks for being great!
Holy crap what a great place!
Just saw this billboard and it made me smile. Glad places like Townsend Leather are in our community.
Keep up the good work! Love working with such a dependable company - always professional !
I am thankful to work with such a committed team, from customer service, quality to the owner. I always feel we are listen. Townsend team is always willing to improve when we have any kind of requests or suggestions.
We appreciate that you are made in the U.S.A, and can usually get orders out quickly for us that meet our customer's expectations.
I am thankful to work with such a committed team at Townsend, from quality, customer service up to Jared. Thank you for always want to to better for your customers. I appreciate it.
I love being part of this area's legacy. Having my hand in leather, just like so many people before us, being part of that story feels cool.
I love being able to tell everyone I know that we have made leather for Vanilla Ice
There is not place like Townsend because our people make each day the best it can be by being excellent to each other Every. Single. Day
It feels like a shared vision here. Everyone together, working toward something special. You get to be yourself and at the same time be part of something, that is something I love.
I love that everyday I get to do and learn new things. The people here are so willing to talk about what they do, and it makes me want to try my hand in every department. And the whole workplace culture is wonderful. Management listens when I have a problem and they work quickly to remedy it.
I love being able to see and handle all of the beautiful leathers that are made here. I am coming up on my 28th Anniversary and so thankful that I have been able to be a part of this company for so long!! I also love the love and appreciation I get from my boss! A true family!
I love getting to work with beautiful leathers everyday! There are so many different kinds
After working a few thankless jobs over the past 15 years, coming to Townsend was literally hitting the "job-jackpot" My mentors and supporters here have helped me grow not only In my career, but in life as well. I love being a part of such a great company.
I am thankful for not being "just a number" in an oddly fun and chaotic workplace, but to be a "Partner" in something much larger...A Family. A Family that takes care of each other and jumps in when necessary.
Everyday I get to spend time with people I love and get my hands onto something awesome. It feels great.
i love feeling part of something
I love making leather!
I love how much of a family Townsend is - we make the best of everything. Having such driven and dedicated partners make you want to excel at whatever you're doing! The different personalities and cultures make for an interesting day, everyday :)
I love how familiar everyone is with each other. We all know each others personalities, likes and even dislikes. LOL We really are like a close family! I feel very comfortable at my job EVERY day!
It might not be easy at times but the one thing is we are treated like family. We come in and work as a team everyday, through the good and the bad we have fun, laugh, joke around with one another while creating beautiful leather and being proud of what we make.
I love who I work with. This team is the f'n best!
Something I love about my job is the feeling that my work matters. I have input and a voice and am part of something.
Thank you for always sharing videos and photos of your teams spreading joy and appreciation. Townsend is setting the standard on driving creativity through adversity. Thank you for the "thank you"s. :)
I am thankful for our industry and thankful for the creativity behind the wonderful and thoughtful Townsend Leather "thank you" video - your creativity is inspiring and more importantly, I am reminded of how important the word "thank you" truly is. Thank you!!!!!
hang in there!
For all our partners and their families safety through this year!! We have been through tough economic times before but never mixed with matters of life and death and uncertainty around health and our livelihood! Together we have made the best of a year Where that takes work! Thankful for the business and opportunities we do have and thankful for all our partners that help us capture and excel at them!!
I am thankful to be connected to such heart-filled people, as Townsend Leather, who come together to help each other through tough times
I am thankful for waking up everyday to be able to enjoy what our lives have, awesome family and friends 😍
Obviously, thankful for good health during this COV19 but also for the friendships I developed with co-workers, my associates throughout the world and the designers that I've had the pleasure of assisting on projects.
Thank you to all our customers redoing and updating their showrooms and workrooms with Townsend Leather. Our sample dept. loves to be kept busy with making samples for your use! Keep the requests coming!
Having a job at Townsend
Feeling thankful to have most of our workforce back and to be making beautiful
leather for customers around the world here in Johnstown, New York.
leather for customers around the world here in Johnstown, New York.
I am thankful for a safe and comfortable place to work and the kind people I get to work with
Thankful and so blessed to live this beautiful life surrounded by amazing family, friends, and doggos! ❤️
Thank you Townsend Partners for having such heart and passion in all you do.
Thank you to all our customers who engage with Townsend Leather and incorporate our leathers into their designs. You are the reason we get to do what we love!
Thank you Townsend for all the hard work that you put into your product and making it beautiful for our projects.
I love the fall, especially because of NBAA. The months and time we anxiously and excitedly prepare for NBAA is like the feeling as a kid on Christmas Eve. The anticipation and inspiration felt from this show and our customers is something to look forward to the entire year!
I love the personal relationships that I have developed with our customers, throughout industries. I know about their personal lives and things that are important to them; not just about our work together.
I love when a customer challenges us by asking for something we have never done on leather. Challenge accepted!
Thank you to all the essential workers that have worked tirelessly to keep so many others safe.
Thank you ice cream, for existing.
I am thankful for sunlight.
Thank you Jared Eckler for being the best leader and role model I’ve had the honor of working for. Thank you for believing in every one of us. Much love for you and the entire Kucel Family
Thank you to all our partners for being so willing to do whatever it takes for our leather and for each other.
“Hire great people and give them freedom to be awesome.”
“Hire great people and give them freedom to be awesome.”
I'm thankful for my family, health and Townsend Leather!
Thank you to all who bought 50/50 tickets today to support Roy! We really have the most generous people! :)
Thank you Townsend for creating such beauty
For the generosity towards helping Roy M. Willis - thank you so much to all! Rachel Hidde and Danielle M. Intelisano told me everyone is really helping out!
Thank you for the everyday motivation of becoming better
to Pamela Goldswer and to all the new partners on our team the past month or two of new partners has me so excited for our future! I’m always inspired to do all I can for us to be successful but with such a great influx of great new partners it makes me doubly want to push all opportunities I and we can to reach an even greater potential we have!
Thank you, Townsend, for accepting me and believing in me.
Thank you Townsend Leather for 50 years of positive action in our Glove Cities community.
Thank you to all Townsend Partners for making it such a joy to work every day.
Townsend Leather crafts leather, by design.
We live our team culture, by design.
We work to meet every customer’s needs, by design.
Our passion for design drives us and inspires us to share. Every once in a while we take a moment to gather some design-focused elements of what we do and who we are and curate them together in a periodical we call, By Design from Townsend Leather.
A glance into what’s new and whats spotlighted at Townsend right now, some tidbits that you will want to know, and a peek into who Townsend is behind the leather.
Our newest edition is available now,
you can download a PDF of it at this link:
www.townsendleather.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Townsend-Leather-BY-DESIGN-8_2020_.pdf
Or scroll down to view it right here, within our site PDF viewer.
You can see all editions of our highly-sought-after By Design Periodical here:
https://townsendleather.com/leather/resources/by-design
If you see something you love, a design inspiration, a leather you need… please contact us! We love to connect, discuss, and explore
info@townsendleather.com
[pdf-embedder url=”https://townsendleather.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Townsend-Leather-BY-DESIGN-8_2020_.pdf” title=”Townsend Leather BY DESIGN 8_2020_”]
