By B. Crawford
What would you do if you had an incredible job in an industry that you loved and were living the high life? Well, you might do what Michael Williams did. Quit your job and start a leather working business.
“It’s like jumping off a cliff; you gotta keep flapping those wings. I could get down at times, but what good is that going to do me. NONE. I always know we are going to get through to the other side.”
Michael started flapping his wings in 2015, and about five years ago he started his own leather shop, Calavera Tool Works. Today, Calavera Tool Works is best known for its specialized aprons, designed for woodworkers, metalworkers and all craftsmen in between. His models include the classic, the lowrider waist apron and the grillmaster special. All of Michael’s aprons help creators work faster, easier and safer – a vital addition to thousands of tool kits across the country.
“Our products are not mass made,” Michael says. “It is literally me sitting behind my sewing machine. I’ve got a production assistant and Marie, my wife, who does just about everything else, accounting, marketing…you name it. Sometimes, my kids help pack the boxes. And that’s it.”
Michael has also found a strong market for his ladies’ handbags. He makes smaller goods like wallets and belts, but he remains focused on larger products because his clients demand them. “People know us mainly for the aprons and the bigger goods. We’ve carved a niche out of woodworkers and carpenters who use their hands to make other stuff. Our customers save up their paychecks to buy their aprons. They may not have the disposable income to pay for a high-dollar, hand-crafted leather wallet, but they know what they need.”
When he was growing up in South Carolina, 49-year-old Michael had no idea that he would end up making leather goods, but he always liked working with his hands. “I grew up building anything and everything I could dream up. I worked construction through high school and college, and along the way learned a little about designing and making furniture. I fell in love with making things. I started with nothing, cooked up an idea, then burned through materials until I made it to a finished piece. I have since destroyed a lot of the evidence.”
After graduating from Notre Dame, Michael went to Spain for a year, then worked in the corporate world before going back to school and earning an MBA, also at Notre Dame. Michael spent 15 years working in the power tool industry. “I sold nails and nail guns for Stanley-Bosch, designed table saws and miter saws, then I landed the ultimate dream job with Festool, a German manufacturer of extremely high-quality power tools. I was a vice president and had responsibility for many aspects of the company’s North American activities.” For Michael, it was the dream job. But the dream began to fade after living the high life and working in the corporate world for 15 years. “I really got sick of working for other people, so I said, screw it, I’m going to go do something else. I found myself wanting to start my own thing.”
There was only one problem. Michael didn’t know exactly what he was going to do on his own. His “aha moment” came when he was visiting a leather tool belt company in California. Michael says, “I found that they were making these amazing leather tool belts; these works of art. These tool belts were made for rough framers and carpenters, people who were working on the rough end of the woodworking business. But when I looked at the aprons made for people who were making fine furniture at the other end of the woodworking spectrum, I realized that the aprons available to these people were absolute garbage. They would last maybe a year and they would have to be replaced. So here, there was a big disconnect. You had framers using these fine tool belts, and you had the finished cabinet and furniture makers using $25 aprons from Home Depot. That was pretty much all there was in the market.”
Michael had found a promising market niche and he went for it. “We sell about 1,000 aprons per year, and I would wager that there are not too many companies in the world who are doing that kind of volume in leather aprons.”
There was only one problem. Michael didn’t know anything about leather working. “I didn’t know anything, but I saw this void in the market. So, I started making them while we were still living in Indianapolis, back in 2015. I got started with a lot of help from the local Tandy Store. Their managers and employees were extremely helpful and patient. My mom gave me a 40-year-old, hand-me-down sewing machine and I taught myself to sew. Then, I basically just set about teaching myself everything about leather working; I just found myself falling in love with the creative process. And before I knew it, I was sewing on my own.”
In 2017, Michael was ready to open his own shop. With support from his family, he decided to move from Indiana back to South Carolina. “I grew up in South Carolina. My parents still live on a farm there and I was excited to get back home.”
Today, Michael has a 2400-square-foot workshop on John’s Island, about a 20-minute drive from his home. There are cows out the front, horses out the back. It is truly bucolic. Michael says, “Driving across the bridge on a daily basis to get to the shop is something that I will never take for granted. It’s the best commute in the world.”
Many leather workers are shocked when they get a glimpse of Michael’s workspace on social media. Why? Michael doesn’t use the usual leather working tools. “I would be a complete and total loss in a normal leather shop,” Michael says. “But I am familiar with a vast array of other cutting instruments from my experience in the woodworking industry. I don’t use a lot of leather working tools because I have so much of that equipment. It’s not like we’re skimping on quality. Our quality is through the roof. It’s just that I am not bound by the traditional methods of making stuff.”
Still, Michael doesn’t skimp on the equipment he needs. “I’ve focused on buying machinery that is way bigger than what we need. That way I can buy a die, make a relatively quick changeover set-up and start cranking on a new product that comes in. So, even if the strap cutter doesn’t get used every single day, when it needs to get used, we use it. With the right equipment, I don’t have to bring on more employees. We can do it all ourselves.”
No matter what kind of tools he uses, the results are the same. High-quality leather goods guaranteed to last. “I call it the Michael Williams guarantee. As long as I walk this Earth, I will make good on that product. I don’t care where I’m going in five years, wherever I am, I will find a sewing machine and fix that thing or give you your money back. Because I am not in this for the money or efficiency, I am in this because I have embraced it as who I am and my way of life. And I think that that is important. I am committed to my products.”
Michael says that over the past seven years, he has had maybe a half dozen returns. When it comes to his products, the clients are necessarily right. “I had one guy; he must have been looking for a fight. He started swearing at me about his apron and I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I tell you what needs to happen. I think you have to put the apron back in the box and ship it back to me. And I will refund your money and let’s move on. If that’s the way you are going to talk about my products or talk to me, we are done here.’” The grumpy client backpedaled immediately. “And the guy ended up keeping the apron; he refused to let it go.”
Since starting Calavera, Michael has continued to innovate. “We have come up with a few things that I have honestly never ever seen,” Michael says. “We now make a waist apron and we make a special apron for wood turners. The aprons have a neck guard that snaps onto the straps or tucks behind the apron when you are not using the flap. I thought about that product idea for years; people asked me about it and finally we figured it out and started making it. It felt so good to innovate in a space that is literally as old as human history. People have been strapping on animal skins to protect themselves forever.”
When he isn’t busy cutting, sewing, selling or shipping, Michael likes enjoying his South Carolina home. On weekends, Michael, Marie, and his four kids, Francel, Boozie, Handsome Boy and Roscoe, like jumping into their 21-foot-center console boat and searching out an island or sand bank off the coast of South Carolina for a day of fishing, swimming and just hanging out.
“I was the youngest of five. When I was growing up, my dad didn’t spend a lot of time hanging out with a big group of friends. He always hung out with us. When I was still very young, I asked him, ‘Dad, who’s your best friend?’ And he said, ‘Well, really, I have a lot of friends, but my best friends are y’all. My kids and my wife. That’s who I love; that’s who I want to spend my time with.’ And that’s kind of the way I am. I enjoy spending time with my family. We are a very content self-contained unit.”
And what about the name Calavera Tool Works? Michael says, “I spent some time in Spain and I enjoyed celebrating Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. On that day, everyone celebrates by making and eating calaveras, skull made of sugar. The holiday is all about honoring your forebearers and those that came before you and did the hard work. You are standing on their shoulders now. When I was starting my company, I spent a lot of time talking to workers who used toolbelts. Since I spoke some Spanish, I had the chance to have rich, meaningful conversations with the immigrant labor force. It really gave me an appreciation for the working immigrants, the people who work their assess off for zero love or appreciation. I decided to call my company Calavera Tool Works to honor all those who came before us and worked their assess off.”
Palm trees, creeks, marshes, the open ocean and a unique product line, Michael has what he needs to survive and thrive in the leather working business. As Michael says, “I am doing exactly what I want to be doing.”
As Jimmy Buffet sings,
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
Michael Williams and Calavera Tool Works have definitely found their stride.