By Bill

Visitors to the woods west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, marvel at the grand foliage of magnificent trees including red maple, black walnut and sycamore. For Nick and Leanne Polidore, the founders of Hemlock & Hyde, a booming producer of hand-made, ethically-sourced leather goods, the most important tree in the Pennsylvania woods is the Canadian hemlock,?tsuga canadensis, also known as eastern hemlock, the state tree of Pennsylvania.  

What makes the eastern hemlock so unique is not its foliage, but its thick dark bark. Early settlers found that hemlock bark could be boiled down into a liquid that could transform their hides into one of the most durable and versatile products on earth, leather. 

“We were drawn to the timeless feel of leather and sharing ethically produced goods,” says Nick Polidore, explaining why they are committed to using only vegetable-tanned leather. “It is the key to what we do.”  

Hemlock & Hyde is a perfect name for a company that prides itself on using natural products. Like Dr. Jekyll, the fictional character who turned himself into the murderous Mr. Hyde, Nick and Leanne take hides (Hydes?), thread, dye and hardware and turn them into signature accessories. “I’ve always loved architectural lines and geometric shapes,” Leanne says. “but I grew up skateboarding and snowboarding. That led to my love of all things bohemian.” 

Carrying a bag from Hemlock & Hyde is like wearing something from a Soho gallery, art for the arm. Their products range from crossbodies to slings to handbags. The roomy half-circle dowel bag can be used as a shoulder bag or a clutch. The Hemlock & Hyde sling bag, a collaboration between Hemlock & Hyde and Noble Goods in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, is a bag that can be worn across the shoulder, across the body or around the waist.  

The most recent line of bags they have introduced is the Bauhaus collection: a collection of bags that echoes the clean lines and functionality of the German Bauhaus school of architecture, complete with a zippered closure, suggested by their customers. 

Hard work and inspired design have led to success. The five-year-old, sustainably focused accessories brand is popular with clients in the United States and Europe. The Polidores enjoyed 100 percent sales growth in 2021. Sales are on track for dramatic growth again this year and Hemlock & Hyde is looking forward to a strong holiday season. 

Nick and Leanne Polidore’s booming leather goods brand had a haphazard start. Nick is a Pennsylvania native. Leanne is from New Jersey. They met while studying illustration at the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia. After graduation, Nick worked as an assistant store manager at Whole Foods; Leanne worked as the art director for Printfresh, a Philadelphia textile company. Nick and Leanne got into leather work by chance. 

“The window display people at a shoe store where one of our friends worked had set up a really cool display with all these vintage hides,” Leanne says.  

After the season ended, the display people were removing the hides when their friend asked, “What do you do with all of this stuff when you’re done with it?”  

“We’re just going to throw it out,” they said.  

“Wait, really?” their friend said, knowing that Leanne loved to sew and was into fashion. “I know someone who might want those.” The friend took the hides, about $3,000 worth, and gifted them to Leanne and Nick.  

Nick and Leanne did little with the hides for two or three years. Then one winter, Leanne decided, “You know what? I’m going to work with some of that leather.”  

When Nick saw Leanne making a small leather catchall, he said, “You know what? I’m going to make some wallets.”  

Nick’s wallets and Leanne’s leather work was so good that the couple was invited to participate in a popular Philadelphia market show, the Fishtown Flea. “It was really great to be out of the studio and exciting for people to be able to see our bags in person,” Nick says. “It was a really fun day, but also a bit exhausting setting up and tearing down an entire display. There is something so special about being a part of the community and seeing other makers and artisans all together. I think after that show we also figured out the approach we wanted to take when selling our goods. Taking an educational approach to our leather, process and designs. Looking back really lets you appreciate how far you’ve come in your craft. We’ve really honed our skills since then.”?? 

The Polidores took the $500 they made at the show, bought an industrial burnisher and started making leather goods. Their first handbag was a single circular crossbody bag, now called the Phoebe. They expanded their handbag offerings and began to expand their product line. Many of their visitors at the markets had asked about the western-style hat that Leanne wore almost daily. Leanne jumped at the chance to partner with a childhood friend who owned a hat factory.  

“Hats were a natural progression into expanding our offerings beyond leather bags,” Nick says. “Naturally, we dove into researching the best options for hat-making materials and learned how to make them ourselves.?Many hats are made of wool, which are stretchy and floppy. We decided to make our hats out of rabbit fur felt. Our hats are stiff and structured just like our bags. If they lose their shape over time, they can be steamed and reshaped just like new.” The Hemlock & Hyde signature hat features an extra tall crown and an optional vintage silk lining, a tip of the hat to tradition and quality. 

From the very beginning, Nick and Leanne knew that they had to take a different path than the leather-making giants. They committed themselves to eco-friendly “slow fashion.” “To us,” Nick says, “Slow fashion means considering the whole system of a product, from start to finish. We take a serious, deliberate and sustainable path – from sourcing the materials through the manufacturing process and customer service.” 

This is where the hemlock trees come in. Many people may believe the tanning process that turns hides into leather requires nothing more than putting hides out in the sun to dry. Wrong. The word tanning actually comes from the word tannin. Tannins are water-soluble acids that occur naturally in many plants. The tanning process requires soaking hides in a tannin-filled liquid. The tannins in the liquid turn stiff unworkable hides into soft workable leather.  

Ninety percent of leather manufacturers use a chemical tanning process, known as chrome tanning. Chrome tanning uses a solution of chemicals, acids and salts to tan hides. This is a quick, cheap process, but it’s not a process that Nick and Leanne wanted to support. Instead, they dug into the heritage of leather work and discovered that for more than 5,000 years, leather workers have used plants to tan hides. In Pennsylvania, leather workers in the 18^th and 19^th centuries found that boiling hemlock bark yielded a tannin-rich liquid, perfect for tanning. Using hemlock bark as a dye also enabled the early craftspeople to give their leather a variety of colors, ranging from a pinkish tan to a rich red.  

Nick and Leanne realized that vegetable-tanned leather was not only ecologically friendly, but created a more robust and longer-lasting product. “We were thrilled to find one of the last vegetable tanneries in the United States was right here in our home state of Pennsylvania,” Nick says. “It’s like it was meant to be. We view our business as an extension of ourselves and we wanted to be thoughtful about how and where we sourced our materials.” 

Nick and Leanne took their belief in slow fashion even further up the retail chain. They wanted to use hides that were headed to the garbage dump. Now, they source hides that are a byproduct of the meat industry.  

Nick is proud that they source their leather from the USA and all their bags are made right here as well. “We’re not perfect, but we are trying to find a more efficient and environmentally-friendly way.” 

 When Nick and Leanne started out, they had great products, great customer feedback and a great brand. Their biggest challenge was marketing. They found their solution online.  

They had launched a website when they launched their brand in 2017, but they didn’t hit their stride until they began to use Instagram. Nick does the photography, while Leanne serves as the spokesperson for the brand. Their online work has been so successful that they have stopped doing in-person marketing and now exclusively sell online.  

Not only does Hemlock & Hyde produce appealing online product showcases, but they also give their robust social media followers a behind-the-scene look at the creation process in a series of YouTube videos, a full make-a-long video and short videos showing part of the process.  

“We want to be an open book, so that people feel like it’s attainable for them because we get so many questions about leather work, about small business, and it’s great just to help other people,” Nick said. 

They even offer customers digital patterns on the “Make with Us” section of their site, so that crafting fans of Hemlock & Hyde can focus on the fun parts of the process, construction and adding the finishing details. 

Nick and Leanne work from a design studio located in the basement of their home in North Wales, Pennsylvania. Taking a look around their studio, one sees leather, leather straps, sewing machines, workbenches, the dies used to cut leather, a clicker press and a product wall where they keep their inventory.? 

“We try to keep a neat and organized workspace,” Leanne says, “Though this is not always possible. Nick is always moving equipment around and reconsidering the use of space. We’ve added a second, four-by-eight-foot workbench to the studio this year, so we can work at separate tables and be more efficient.” 

Nature is a huge source of inspiration for Hemlock & Hyde. “Inspiration often comes when you don’t expect it,” Leanne says. “We research weaving, baskets, paintings and art movements. Nick tends to read a lot of non-fiction books including marketing, business and strategy. I’m always listening to a podcast, from business start-ups to true crime!”??   

Nick says that working together with his wife is not for everybody. “I think a lot of people get hung up on details that aren’t important, but we both went to art school, so we’re used to critiques. We critique each other to make the business better. It’s not about the person.” 

“I think the main thing for us is we kind of fill in the gaps,” Leanne says. “Nick’s strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa. I also think we have really great communication skills.” 

What do the Polidores do when they are not working leather? “We spend a lot of time with our son on nature walks. Leanne is busy always making something,” Nick says. “Most recently she is building a table for our entrance way. I like to play guitar, read, cook and garden.”  

And don’t forget Greta, the Polidore’s eight-year-old Standard Poodle. “She loves cold weather and chasing squirrels,” Nick says. “She’s the sweetest, smartest dog we know.”?? 

One day, Nick and Leanne hope to move their business from their home to a storefront. “We envision our future business as a curated boutique shop,” Nick says. 

According to Leanne, “I love the idea of us having a brick-and-mortar space where we can also have offer lessons in leather working.” 

No matter where leather leads them in the future, Nick and Leanne Polidore will always be rooted in natural products and the hemlock trees that inspired them to start Hemlock & Hyde.