The Story of Leather

Moore & Giles Leather Spans Decades in Business

By: Izzi Diaz Young | Photos Courtesy: Moore & Giles

In 1933, during the global economic downturn now known as The Great Depression, a man named Donald Moore lost his job. He was a pattern maker for shoes and had been let go from the Craddock Terry Shoe Company. Not unlike many men at that time, Moore had to start his life over, so he established a business called Donald Moore Sales Company. In 1935, his son-in-law, Vernon Giles joined in the cause and the company was rebranded to Moore & Giles. Together, they sold leather components for footwear to factories all across the East Coast.

In 1990, Sackett Wood joined the Moore & Giles team as a salesman. Their team decided it was time to evolve and bring more life to leather, beginning to upholster it, creating products beyond simply footwear. They eventually were able to achieve this goal, launching a complete bags and accessories line in 2007.

As of 2024, ninety-one years after its inception, Moore & Giles is a globally renowned leather manufacturing company known for their high quality leather goods—from pristine hides to stunning products, all represented through their luxury lifestyle brand.

Sackett Wood, former salesman turned company president and now CEO alongside current president, Tray Petty, oversees the business at large—a business that believes in the purpose of leather, a relationship between employee and hide spanning nearly one hundred years. Wood, Petty, and their team dedicate each day to ensuring the entity of leather continues on, and that the story behind it remains told.

But the tale doesn’t start with just Wood, or even with Moore or Giles. The story of leather originated long before anyone can recall, when no one knew what it
was or how it could be used, nor the beauty it would someday create.

As such an important substance that has been a part of everyone’s daily lives for as long as any one person can likely remember, it’s easy to be unfamiliar with the significance leather has on the world as we know it. Maybe it’s shown through a family heirloom like a wallet, or a newer design, such as a handbag. No matter the product, leather creates a string between generations—one that, sometimes, we might not even realize is there.

“People forget that leather has been around since the dawn of mankind,” Wood reported. “It was the original performance material.”

Due to the sustainability of the matter itself, Moore & Giles now use that same performance material to create their products today, receiving hides from all around the world. While these skins are primarily European hides, Wood noted, they also acquire hides from Australian origin, English hides, New Zealand hides, and even Irish hides. These are then tanned in locations internationally, such as in Thailand, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany.

“The hide really starts off as someone else’s trash,” Wood revealed. “There’s a conscious decision by tanners around the world to pick these hides up off the doorstep of the world everyday and scientifically preserve them, then artistically transform them into leather. That’s the story of leather.”

Wood said that it takes around four weeks to create leather from a hide, and the beauty of it is that it will be long-lived, serving its purpose beyond just one generation.

“If you get the science of the hide right,” Wood commented, “then that creates a canvas whereby an artistic endeavor can ensue.”

After launching bags and accessories in 2007, Moore & Giles branched out yet again to home decor and furniture. Today, their leather spans residential and commercial spaces, including high-end furniture, restaurant seating, and boutique hotel furnishings.

“Patience and material,” Wood said, describing the process of creating a material or product that is designed to last, and gets even better with time. “And finding the right partners who appreciate that.”

He labels “distinctiveness” as one of the major keywords within their company.

“Our design aesthetic is not about how much we need to do to systemize the leather or perfect it, but to celebrate what it is, knowing that every hide is different and unique,” he said. “We’re making something that will last, and things that last matter.”

Over the course of nearly one hundred years of leather creation, there were bound to be new factors that would have an impact on leather and the manufacturing of it. Having been a part of the team for over thirty years, Wood has seen the business shift and evolve in ways he could have never expected.

“Color changed our business,” he remarked.

The lack of color used in leather product creation years ago has evolved from perfected shades like black, brown, and burgundy into a rainbow of inspiration. Now, hues and pigmentations of all ranges can come to life upon a leather canvas; tints such as forest green, deep reds, or soft blues can garnish a chair or a satchel, working with other materials in order to make leather accessible across more areas.

Not only has Moore & Giles’ products become more accessible since its origin, but thanks to their lifestyle brand, so has their company as a whole. Their opulent marketing has captivated viewers turned customers of all ages and backgrounds since their rebranding in 2006.

“When we rebranded the company, that meant cleaning up the logo and modernizing it, but what it really means is that you have to start investing in yourself and the future every day,” explained Wood.

From their distinguishable deep, golden yellow and white logo to their noteworthy seasonal catalogs, the corporation’s brand sets out to not only get their message in front of the public, but also invite them to pull up a seat at the table.

Moore & Giles has curated an instantly recognizable identity, within the Lynchburg manufacturing community and beyond. This advance has earned them thousands of followers across their social media platforms, a high performing website complete with a way-of-life blog, and even a place to tell their stories with their own voices, on the “Nothing to Hide” Moore & Giles Podcast.

Wood gives the credit of these accolades to the business’ astounding team of creatives: the photographers, graphic and web designers, social media gurus, and communications departments. These staff members are all employed in-house, either working alongside Wood and Petty directly at their in-person office located in Forest, or remotely, telling the importance of leather from locations beyond the Hill City.

“Our investment in our brand through people and skill sets that are local is what is propelling us forward,” he said.

“This is a collection of people from Appomatox, Altavista, Lynchburg… this is people from here. We’re doing this!”

As a result of its sustainability, its existence within hundreds of thousands of keepsakes passed down through the ages—the narrative remains the same. The neverending story of leather, despite staying consistent, has now been authored by diverse voices across the years of its being.

Wood reflected on this lifespan of leather, remarking, “Leather is the common thread from 1933 to today. It’s an honest story to tell, it resonates in the sustainable world we live in today as a sustainable material, as a performance material, and we should use it. It’s put there before us, and we have an obligation to use it.”

Through execution with different hands and different hides, leather continues telling unique stories in individual lives with each passing day. All it takes is one glance at a chair in your hotel lobby or a dopp kit in your family member’s bathroom to recognize that it is more than merely a substance, but a legacy—a tradition passed down from generation to generation, just like folklore.