Kicking around for a couple years now, but a bit under the radar, has been our very own leather “secret sauce”/”magic potion”/”top secret method”.
Townsend Leather’s Radiance Effect.
Conjured up and perfected by our ART & D team, this proprietary process gives a stunning depth of color and shading to embossed products.
The process is a tightly kept secret with details that are even “restricted access” granted for a select few of Townsend Partners.
Through specialized materials and process our Finish Team is able to take nearly any embossed leather and provide a unique eye-catching effect in either a high gloss or matte look. With the bright sheen option, Radiance offers a true look of luxury highlighting the embossing and giving a “jewel” look. When applied with a dull or matte sheen the leather is given a level look that appears as if it were hand-rubbed and tipped at the same time.
Here are just a random handful of some of the beauties that have come out of our ART & D department of leather with Townsend Leather’s Radiance Effect.
You can add Townsend Leather’s special Radiance Effect to almost any embossed leather, adding a wow factor as well as color depth and added durability. If you are looking to add some zing to your leather selections, contact a Townsend Leather partner to request samples or get started on your custom design.
At Townsend, we love making new things and exploring all the options and beauty of leather.
But, once in a while after looking at, exploring, and loving so many new things – it is nice to step back and appreciate the one that is always there and always wonderful. So, we take a pause today to to appreciate the beauty and versatility of our most beloved, most cherished, Classic Cowhide Leather.
Classic Leather is Townsend’s most popular leather. And it is easy to see why. This leather is carefully hand-crafted at Townsend with respect and diligence. It is aniline-dyed with a beautiful natural grain. This leather is made from the best of the best possible hides, so the grain is left alone, to show itself and its organic beauty. Classic is cowhide, but with Townsend, the production is made with such care and softness, with such a light finish (only there to protect and enhance), it feels more like buttery and elegant calfskin.
This is a leather loved by all industries and designers because of its beauty, versatility, and durability. It can be used in nearly any application. And with so many standard colors to choose from, along with Townsend’s custom color capabilities – the realm of design possibilities is endless…
If you want to fall in love with Townsend Leather’s Classic Cowhide all over again (like we do daily!), contact us for samples or to start creating your own custom design.
As we settle into this new year, I thought we would just take a quick stroll through “Town(send)” and see some of the beauty that is here…
And so so much more to come this year…
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
JARED ECKLER
In 2014 I witnessed our team capture many triumphs of high achievement as we Dared Greatly. These heroic efforts and achievements by our partners on many occasions inspired, moved, and stayed with me long after the day was done. Speaking in September at our 45th Townsend birthday party, I was humbled by the greatness achieved by Townsend, its customers, and suppliers. The reputation, legacy, and the partnerships Townsend has fostered and developed over the years is amazing to behold!
Doubling as our DJ for the 45 th party I played some of my favorite songs from my favorite movie of the year, Guardians of the Galaxy! As a big fan of superheroes going back to my childhood, it is quite awesome to now work with and for superheroes every day! Enjoying all the new super hero movies with my daughter is a lot of fun for us both! We saw Guardians on opening day and fell in love with its cast of underdogs banding together to become something greater than its parts. As super hero movies are wont to do these days, they humanize the story of the main characters – because after all, it’s hard to relate and empathize with someone who is invincible. The task of saving the world becomes a bit more daunting and therefore rewarding and inspiring when the heroes are vulnerable and flawed – like us. Emotionally, the story and characters both connected with me and Olivia. It was easy for me to relate the characters of the movie, through their struggles and through their triumph, to those of Townsend’s partners, making it all the more meaningful for me.
Equating our team efforts to a summer blockbuster movie is not a statement I would have made publicly a few years ago, as it may have been too fun for those times or too telling of my age as a leader. Townsend and its partners enjoyed a year of growth and success in 2014 and we had fun doing it. I am proud to say that we enjoy our work and we are looking to see continued challenges as opportunities that will be met with our team enthusiastically rising up and proving again and again what a great team we are! I am, if you will; “Hooked on a Feeling” and “High on Believing” in each other, in teamwork, in our customers, in our suppliers, in the improved economy, and in spreading our unrivalled quality, service, creativity, and delivery throughout the galaxy in 2015!
In 2015, I wish the partners of Townsend Leather many experiences of great teamwork, fun, success, and lighthearted moments through family, work, and life!
President, Townsend Leather
Jared Eckler
This has been one spectacular year for Townsend Leather. New leathers, new people, new projects, new opportunities, new growth… And has certainly given us a lot to be thankful for!
There is no way to truly capture all the magic that happened this year as super hear team of Townsend partners banded together and created awesomeness, but here is a quick look back at just a couple highlights.
We started the year right off with some exciting new leathers, and then spent a whole month professing our Love of Leather, with our Love of Leather series.
This year we celebrated our employees unique personalities, hobbies, and accomplishments. With awards, citizenships, marriages, babies and more.
We celebrated our national pride at manufacturing a product that is hand crafted in the United States.
We celebrated our local pride with impressive local programs like PTECH.
And of course we got excited about numerous tradeshows. Celebrating near and far.
This year also included super fun events like our “Cabin Fever Party”, our “Longevity Luncheon”, our “Earth Day CleanUp”, our Halloween Costume Contest, our Ice Bucket Challenge, our Chili CookOff and Cookie BakeOff, and of course just recently our Holiday Luncheon and Ugly Sweater Contest.
Our Holiday Luncheon and Ugly Sweater Contest were great fun. There was so much food, laughs, and memories. There were special awards and lots of hugs going around. We spent time remembering the fantastic year we all had at Townsend Leather and talking about the greatness we plan to create this coming year. Our Ugly Sweater winner are shown in the photo, the hand made wonders take home the big prizes!
Of course one of the biggest events of the year was
Townsend’s 45th Birthday bash.
This year was also kind-of bookended with a couple of very meaningful awards. Toward the beginning of the year Townsend Leather was named a Top Work Place of 2014. And just recently, toward the end of this year, Townsend was named a Best Place to Work of 2014.
These awards are meaningful statements of the special people Townsend has. This year was a fantastic one, and it is all due to the people. The partners here in the building, the partners working with us to provide materials, the partners across the world spreading the good word of Townsend, and the partners across the world designing amazing things with Townsend’s leathers. The people are what it all comes down to. And this year was a people-year.
As we say goodbye to 2014 we thank you for you love of leather, and for being a fan of Townsend Leather. We are welcoming 2015 in with wide open arms, big expectations, and even bigger ambition.
For the second time this year, Townsend Leather has been recognized for being a truly great place to work!
The Albany Business Review recently announced the 2014 Top 30 Best Places To Work in the Albany Area and Townsend Leather made the list!
We are so excited and proud to receive this honor. Especially after already being recognized by the Times Union as a Top Work Place for 2014 earlier this year!
This honor is given to Townsend as a result of employee surveys sent out by the prestigious and tough-reviewing Albany Business Review. Because of the love shared and expressed by Townsend partners for Townsend Leather and their work here, we were chosen as one of the Top 30 workplaces in the entire greater Albany area.
Partners expressed praise for Townsend Leather’s leadership, culture, benefits, and work environment among many other aspects of work life. Everyone here at Townsend has such a high level of trust and feels valued for their individual and team contributions. It is exciting that this love of Townsend, that everyone here knows and feels, will continue to be shared and spread throughout the community with this announcement.
We loved the Albany Business Review‘s theme this year, “Companies that Rock!” We’ve been saying it for years, now we have it in writing – Townsend Rocks! The award show was a blast, with rockin’ tunes, costumes, “music videos” and everything! Townsend was honored to bring a group of 20 Partners to accept the award and celebrate together. Townsend was just one of 6 companies in the 101-175 Employees Category, to be named a Best Place to Work, and just one of 2 manufacturers to make the list, AND the only company from all Fulton County to make the list! A truly fantastic honor for Townsend and its Partners.
Scroll along below to see just a few of the snapshots and highlights from this lunchtime event. Townsend partners are always up for a party and this was no exception. Look at the smiles and expressions in the photos below, everyone was so happy to be there representing Townsend. There were laughs, stories, air-guitaring, and good times being had all around. A couple of us even got to see Elvis!
But, silliness and jokiness aside – this was truly a significant moment for Townsend Leather and all of us partners. A moment to take a step back, look at our year, look at our company, look at our team – and feel tremendous pride at the things we have accomplished and the people we are.
You can also see some other photos and info at the Albany Business Review’s site:
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This honor also comes at the close of our fiscal year and it is exciting to know that we are not just a bunch of people that love working together, and have lots of fun, but we get stuff done too! This has been one of Townsend’s busiest and most effective years. We have been creating new products, getting into amazing projects, and pleasing customers and fans all over the world. It has been a really great year and it is so meaningful to look back at a year so full of heartfelt value.
Thanks for being a Townsend Leather fan.
Our brand new Pops Of Color selection has been grabbing a lot of attention lately!
We introduced this colorful selection just recently at NBAA and BDNY and it has been met with bright smiles and bursts of interest. This collection of colorful leathers was hand chosen to be the perfect accent selection for stunning designs. It features a range of textures, sheens, and products.
Taj Gaufrage, Taj, Classic, and Excel cowhides all make this a diverse and fun collection.
This selection of colorful Pop colors is bright and fun and eye catching. With just a small bit of trim, or interesting placement, these colors can bring new life to a bland design and can balance perfectly with a gray or darker scheme.
Of course Townsend is no stranger to COLOR We love keeping things bright and eye catching!
Contact your Townsend Leather Customer Service Solution Provider or at, info@townsendleather.com for a sample sheet or for more information.
We are so thankful this year and excitedly looking forward to Thanksgiving!
Since it has become an annual tradition around here, all the Townsend Partners took a moment out of their day – to list out a couple of the things they are Thankful for.
This has been a truly amazing year at Townsend and one that has produced lots of thankful moments for all of us.
Talking with a few folks about thankful things, and some of the more significant moments throughout this year of many of our partners: losing loved ones, car crashes, dealing with sickness and disease, marriages, babies, new houses… (so much happens in a year!), it is humbling and nearly overwhelming to think of all the moments, things, and people to be thankful for.
Below of a listing of some of the things Townsend Partners are thankful for. This is just a small sampling, the list could go on and on forever.
Speaking on behalf of everyone at Townsend, we are thankful for a successful year, having such a great place to come every day, and such a great team to work with.
Speaking personally, it is easy to see why this “thankful list” is so long and gets filled up so quickly. The people here at Townsend are truly impressive folks. Each one with their own passions and unique takes on life, but coming together each day to create something that is even greater than the sum of its great parts.
So without further ado, please take a moment to see some of the things Townsend Partners are thankful for in 2014. The list is long, but funny and meaningful, so I think it will be time well spent. If you have something you are thankful for, join in our conversation on Facebook. Facebook/TownsendLeatherCompany
#TEAMTOWNSEND
A close and caring family and great friends!
A great husband, who puts up with so much estrogen in one house.
A great job
A great job that allows me to be surrounded by great people.
A Heated Garage
A job I love
A job I love
A job I love
A job I really love!
A job that I enjoy!
A job that I love
A loving and supportive family.
A loving extended family
A new furnace
A new nephew coming
A rewarding career
A winning team – effort will get you a long ways.
A work family that inspires me to be a better leader and person
After years of thinking it is gross, my son telling me my beard looks cool
An amazing wife and son (and dog!)
An awesome husband
And a couple of days off! Amongst many, many other things.
And a warm home… just a few of many things I am thankful for!
Apple
Apples
Applesauce
Apps
Awesome co-workers and bosses
Awesome teammates both in and out of Townsend
Babies
Being able to feed my family.
Being able to have two jobs.
Being able to smile everyday.
Being healthy 18 years out after receiving a kidney/pancreas transplant!
Best Place to Work!
Bonus checks
Bosses who listen
Chili cook-offs
Chili!
Coffee
Coffee
Coffee & white chocolate peppermint creamer
Cold beer
College basketball
Color
Communication
Cookie bake-offs
Cookies!
Cousins
Co-Workers
Creativity
Crisp Fresh Air
Dancing
Dark Roast Coffee
Doin’ it To it
Dorothy Kucel
Dressing up for fun funny photos
Earning VIP status
Eddie Money
Energy saving light bulbs.
Excel 2013 and all the lessons on how to utilize it – tables, pivots, slicers, if statements…has made putting information together not only easy but fun!…and the data connections that put live info at your fingertips.
Family
Family
Family
Family
Family – no matter what size it is a blessing in disguise.
Family; whether it is blood Family, In-laws, or my Townsend Family.
Filetopia
Finally I am thankful that I survived the most challenging year of my career here at Townsend and any place else I have worked….
Flexibility
Football
For 80’s music
For coffee in the morning.
For having a job that I love.
For having the opportunities I have.
For Health. It is amazing thing to wake up every morning. We take it for granted.
For living and being happy.
For loving family and friends, my Townsend leather family and for the hope of a wonderful new year in 2015.
For my children! That is number one!
For my daughters who are healthy and happy women.
For my dogs.
For my family, friends and the best job in the world!!!
For my family.
For my friends, music, wine and food, not necessarily in that order – it varies.
For my health.
For my husband.
For my wonderful family and special friends.
For new great projects. For the people who made them possible and are delivering on them.
For the year of 2014, life, health, and great partners.
For this beautiful earth we live on.
For waking up every morning and knowing that it is going to be a great day.
For Wolverine
Freihofer’s cookies
Friends
Friends
Friends
Friends.
Fruit roll ups
Getting married
Giving
Going 200 days without an accident
Good Books
Good friends
Gram Dot
Gran Marnier
Great books
Gum
Halloween costume contests
Health
Health
Health
Heating blankets
Holidays
Hot Chocolate
Humor & laughter
I LOVE MY JOB!!!
Ice Cube gum
I’m most thankful for Grey Goose Vodka!!!
I’m thankful for my awesome job and wonderful family!
Initiative
IPAs
Jeans
Jeeps
Jewel & Panda (my pets)
Job
Learning from, and being led by, all those that have come before us
Leather
Leather
Legos
Love & support from family, friends, & strangers
Loyal friends
Lysol
Marco The Terrier
Mentalist TV show coming back on end of month
Mine and my family’s health
Moisturizer to get me through the winter
My animals
My awesome position here @ Townsend Leather
My cozy, warm home
My daughter
My daughter.
My entire family
My family
My family (my new grandson)
My family, always having my back!
My friends
My goddaughter who is the most precious thing in this world!! <3
My health and the health of my friends and family
My home
My husband & son
My job, working for a striving company that cares about their employees
My new house!
My nieces and nephew
My son who has grown up to be such a considerate and caring young man!
My Team mates in the Sample Dept.
My thoughtful significant other that does the laundry and makes dinner during the week.
My wife
New kitchen
New opportunities
Opportunity to grow and learn in the work place.
Organic Fair Trade French Roast Coffee
Our company’s continued success and spirit!
Our dog
Our new home
Pat Benetar
People I like working with each day
People who Get Shit Done!
People who take work seriously but don’t act like it all the time
People who wash their hands
Perfection- often worked toward, rarely achieved
Pizza
Purell
Quiet
Rain
Raising money for Partners in need
Red Kucel
Redcat ;)
Safety
Seeing how happy a customer gets when talking in-person to a Townsend rep
Seymour the Fish
Smiles
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow melting and going away
Snow tires
Steady work.
Steel Panther
Still having my parents in my life <3
Strength & determination to start running 5K’s
Strong leadership
Stuffing and gravy
Sun
Suppliers doing a dang good job
Support and Guidance.
Taco Bell coming to Johnstown
Taylor Swift
Teamwork
Teamwork
Terry and Barb Kucel
Thankful Partners
That the skunk smell is almost out of my house!
The ‘Townsend Family’
The founders of Townsend
The generosity in the workplace. it is truly touching to see the amount of people donating to scratch off baskets for our fellow partner during his time of need
The health and love of my children & wife along with the new journey I am on here at TL.
The health of my parents
The Kucel Family – and families that came from it
The New York Giants (maybe next year)
Top Work Place
Townsend being named Best Place to Work 2014
Townsend being named Top Work Place 2014
Townsend Sales Reps
Townsend turning 45!
Traveling
TURKEY!
Twisted Tea
Vacations
Veterans
Warm hugs
Warm weather
Weddings
Wine with laughs & story telling
Yahtzee
This is not a marketing ploy, or a sales pitch – but there is no other way to say it, other than to say it – when it all comes down to it, the one thing Townsend Leather is most thankful for is YOU our Townsend Leather Customers, Partners, and Fans.
It is true.
Townsend loves working for our customers, we love creating new things, we love working hard getting our hands dirty, we love saving problems, being challenged, seeing smiles, hearing exclaims of delight, and getting customers just what they want. Townsend has been recognized twice this year as being a truly great place to work. Both of these awards were given because our people said they love it here. You can’t really love a place, unless you love what they stand for, what they do, and who they do it for. Luckily we work with some of the greatest reps and customers in the world, who are doing luxurious, incredible, beautiful things. Customers that make positive change in the world and make everything look better while doing it. Customers that love design and leather as much as we do.
So to you dear customers Partners, we sincerely THANK YOU. Please keep making the world a lovely-ier, leathery-er, even-better-designed place and we will gladly support you along the way – with a smile on our face and solutions in our pocket.
This has been one hell of a year. Customers, Vendors, Reps, Fans, Partners…Thanks for being a part of it.
