In the last 23 years Springfield Leather Company has become a major staple in the leather supply world. You may have a package coming right now taped up with their distinct yellow tape or you may have seen owner Kevin Hopkins on their Youtube channel showing you how to double loop lace. We got a chance to visit with Kevin to ask him some questions to get a glimpse inside the family-owned, almost 100-employee business that all started with a guitar strap. 

If I met the high school version of Kevin, what was he like?

Wow, while in high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but when I got out, which was in May, if I recall correctly, I got tremendously mad at my parents for no good cause at all. I was so mad that I went to the big city with a friend of mine and we both enlisted in the Navy. 

I knew I was not going to have a choice. I would have to go into some form of military service. That was in 1968 and that was no question. So, to make a long story short, that’s what we did, we enlisted.

How has that type of proactive decision making affected you in starting a business and developing Springfield Leather? 

Well, that sort of proactive thinking wasn’t really a part of my makeup at that time. And I didn’t have to do any proactive thinking while I was in the military, it’s only after I got out that I found proactive thinking would be smart. And while proactive thinking might have been smart, I wasn’t all that smart. 

So I got into drug dealing and various other bad things along with playing music in a band which wasn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t the smartest thing I could have done and it was only after I turned about 25 years old that I started realizing that proactive thinking was a good thing. 

In other words, you should consider ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen in the face of this decision? What’s the best thing that could happen in the face of this decision?’ So at that time, I went to work for John Deere first, and that was a job, paid money. I was able to support myself. But the job that I had driving a forklift was pretty challenging. And in the venue that I drove this forklift, it was not conducive to good health. So, I quit and tried to rely on the band to support myself, but I didn’t last too long and then went to work for Tandy leather. That was much easier work. Much less pay, but I didn’t have a whole lot of ambition at the time other than to just be able to work, support my family and be okay and that was the extent of it when I started working for Tandy. 

I’ve heard the story about how you wanted to make a guitar strap and that led you into a Tandy store and eventually you started working there and now here we are. How does it feel that one small decision to make a guitar strap has changed–I would say–thousands of lives?

Well, pretty good actually. You’re right that decision did make a difference. I actually made those guitar straps before working for Tandy and after starting work for Tandy, I continued on with that sort of leather craft because Tandy didn’t pay enough to survive. So I did leather work on the side and through my regional managers and other managers, I gained experience in how to promote leather craft and I discovered that I was a pretty natural promoter. I was good at that, and I had a lot of experience so that gave me credibility. As I proceeded on through my career with Tandy, I focused a lot on teaching young people in schools and also teaching customers where I felt that I could and helping people to do better and I have always wanted to do that. 

I would definitely say that you have accomplished that. Are there any projects that you’ve done or assisted with over the years that bring to mind a moment of profound joy or satisfaction?

Hmm. Profound joy or satisfaction. That’s a challenging one. 

You know, in the secular part of my life, it’s been focused on leather and leather craft. So gaining the ability to provide a product to people that are involved in that craft and actually help them to gain joy from their craft and to gain the ability to make a profit and to possibly forward their craft into a business. Having seen that happen, that’s a cause for joy. 

The prison business that we have really has also provided a great deal of satisfaction for me, because it’s not that I have any special feeling for prisoners either one way or the other. But when a person is in prison, that’s where they are and they have to deal with their life from that point. So it’s always been kind of a desire of mine to use the prison business to create a win-win situation. 

And, you know, people that are in prison, many times suffer from a lack of self-esteem along with a lot of other issues and providing them with a product and an option to take up a craft along with an option to support themselves and contribute to the support of their families that’s a win-win. And we’ve done that. So I get a lot of joy out of that and I’ve gotten a lot of response from people that have been in prison and now they’re running leather craft businesses of their own or doing whatever, but that’s been a good thing. 

When you think of the last 23 years of SLC, about how much technology has changed, how would you say that you have embraced it from a business perspective? 

I’ve embraced it mainly through other people because I have a hard time adapting to change, I’m hesitant to change and I don’t like to change. But at the same time I have always known that  you have to change or things are not going to be good. So, as far as technology went, I mean, I was one of the last flip phone guys, and I didn’t really want anything to do with Amazon, but my employees did, and they just were so insistent and said,  ‘Kevin, this is what you need to do.’ 

Well, I listened to them and we went ahead and they worked. So not being completely stupid I was ready enough to expand those areas and we did and it’s mainly because of other people having the ability to do that because I don’t. If it was up to me to conduct an Amazon or an Etsy or an eBay business, we wouldn’t have them.

What is the strangest, weirdest, most quirky product you’ve seen or sold in the leather industry?

One thing was the fact that we sold Bic lighters to prisons all across the country for years and years and still do. Well, they can’t have Bic lighters so we call them thread burners, and by calling them thread burners craft shops and supervisors okayed them.They said this looks like a lighter. Yeah, well it’s a thread burner and that was a strange thing. I also learned that we could sell paper clips, paper, sandpaper and sponges to people in prison and those things that people on the outside can get but people in prison don’t have access to.

As far as something strange and quirky, I think chicken shins; it’s probably the strangest thing that I’ve ever sold leather wise. It was a little piece of leather about five or six inches long that was the shin of a chicken. It was tan and you can make a watch band out of them. 

Everybody always asks for your best piece of advice, so what’s your worst piece of advice?

The worst piece of advice that I could ever give, it’s a two prong thing. Number one, ignore your creator. And do not cultivate humility. 

You have mentioned in other interviews, the importance of humility and helping others, what actions can other leather crafters take to help the future of the leather craft culture? 

Oh, that’s easy. Share your knowledge. 

This has been a major influence on the success of Springfield Leather because we never had any secrets. If you want to know where to buy something we tell you where to go to buy it or if you want to know how to do something, we tell you how to do that. 

The leather world had become a very secretive place and I feel like we’ve changed that to some degree as has the internet. You know, the internet has certainly played a large part and I like to think we’ve contributed to that because we just don’t have any secrets and the more people that share their knowledge, the more people are going to be successful and the more people that are successful well that benefits me, it benefits them and benefits everybody.

If you could summarize the last 23 years in a few words what would those be? 

It’s been a wild, crazy and far more than I expected ride. I never expected things to kick off to the level that they have. I had hoped for success and it went far beyond that. And now I have to try to apply all the advice that I give to others to myself. 

What’s the next big thing for Springfield Leather? 

It’s a very challenging time that we live in. Far more challenging than probably anybody ever counted on it being, but due to those circumstances, we have to come to grips with being able to take care of the business that is coming our way and that we have generated. 

So, expanding our warehouse capability is an absolute necessity. Expanding our order filling capability is a necessity. There’s a lot of headwinds in front of us regarding those things but it doesn’t change the fact that those are the next big things. 

Anything else that you would like to say to a customer or somebody reading this? 

One thing I’ve really appreciated from our customers is the level of trust that they have extended to us. That is such a huge thing and I feel like it’s all of our responsibility to repay that trust by giving our customers the benefit of the doubt and doing our best to provide service and product to them. I think that’s a pretty big deal. As far as anything else, keep your priorities in life straight because that’s what makes everything work.