Respected Leather Company Comes Clean on Knocking off Another Designer

Dave Munson, founder of Saddleback Leather and outspoken opponent of the practice of "knocking off" someone else’s original designs has admitted in a tell-all video this week to copying another Designer in several popular designs. This comes to a shock to many who closely follow the brand and its charismatic leader.

Just over a year ago that Dave the owner Saddleback Leather released a video entitled How to Knock Off a Saddleback Bag, that amassed nearly 500k views, in which the owner of and designer for the 10 year old company spoke out with humorous but often harsh words against what he sees as thieves and opportunists. He mocked even their ability to properly knock off his designs by showing the proper way to steal, step-by-step throughout the design.

In his recent video, How to Knock off a Cow" Dave comes clean about blatantly stealing core aspects of the design for many of his products from the "Designer of the whole universe." To wit, many aspects of cow design, including large areas of unbroken leather, a total lack of zippers and few holes or perforations in the surface of the animal are so nearly identical between the two designers that Dave admitted he effectively just copied the concept, removed the meat, and added some handles.

How this will affect the public image of the burgeoning brand is yet to be seen. Some early reactions include appreciation of Dave’s humility by finally come clean, to disgust (not at the act of knocking off cows per se, but at the graphic descriptions of the cow’s nether regions). On the whole, most customers don’t seem concerned at the design theft and argue that in the original design the cow only lived for about 15 years whereas the Saddleback designs are warrantied for a century.


About Saddleback Leather
Saddleback Leather Co. traces its origins back to a single bag, designed and built for Dave Munson when he was volunteering and working in Mexico. In search of the perfect bag at the time, Munson commissioned a local leather craftsman to build his design. As the quantity of orders from fellow travelers could not be denied, Munson started Saddleback Leather Co. in 2003, bringing together classic design with his signature take on personal, indestructible functionality. Thousands of bags later, the Saddleback Leather collection features heirloom-level bags and small accessories produced with the highest quality leather that will age to reflect the owner’s trials and travels. Saddleback Leather, they’ll fight over it when you’re dead.™