Happy Anniversary Shoptalk!
Lifetime Leather Co.
ShopTalk! is proud to have supported the age-old skills and resilience of leather craftsmen for the last five years. In this, our yearly anniversary issue, it is only fitting that we reach back into our own heritage and shine the spotlight on Ty Bowman, a craftsman whose story was told in our December 2018 issue, who continues to honor the tradition that so few follow in modern times. Ty is the founder and chief honcho of Lifetime Leather Co. in Arizona. Ty’s story is one for the silver screen, or at least a silver-trimmed workbench. You’ll see why as you read on.
Ty Bowman stands at the center of his 3,000-square-foot industrial workspace in the San Tan Valley, east of Phoenix. He is well-built, with a trim beard and long black hair pulled back under a gimme cap - laid back, but all business. His eyes burn with an intensity that can only come from more than a decade of building, rebuilding and re-rebuilding his business, Lifetime Leather Co. It is indeed the work of his lifetime. Today, Ty can look around his workspace and say with confidence, “I’m definitely not nervous.”
Ty’s workshop reflects his personality and his appearance. It is clean, well lit and airy. There are large tables for cutting and imprinting, three sewing machines and a generous shipping area. Rolls of top-grain, American manufactured leather sit on metal shelves, near a huge American flag hanging from the wall. Ty says, “We are red, white and blue – as hard core as you can get.”
The stand-out feature of the workshop is a battered oak desk. The desk is scratched and stained,
