When you look at a finished product, it can be easy to forget how much actually has to happen before it gets there.

Manufacturing has been one of the biggest learning curves for us since starting LEALE. And especially when you are a small brand making your own products from scratch, finding the right manufacturing partner is not as simple as sending over a design and receiving a perfect product a few weeks later.

Because for a manufacturer, taking on a new brand is an investment too: they need to understand your product, learn how you want it made and figure out the processes.

But even then, finding someone to make your product is really only the beginning.

With a fully custom product, there is a long process between the first prototype and being able to make the same product again and again, exactly the way you imagined it. Measurements change, materials behave differently than expected, small construction details suddenly make a big difference. Something that looked great on one prototype might not work when you try to reproduce it consistently. It takes time.

Which is also why we are particularly proud of where we have ended up with LEALE today. We now work with two manufacturing partners, each specialising in a very different type of production.

Our leather collection - handmade in Málaga

Our signature leather collection is made in a small artisan workshop just outside Málaga in southern Spain.

Visiting the workshop for the first time was quite special. It is not a huge anonymous factory or an automated production line. It is a relatively small space full of traditional leatherworking tools, materials, machines and, most importantly, people who have been doing this for decades.

Our leather leashes, collars and pouches are made here by hand from Spanish leather. The leather is cut, shaped and assembled using a combination of traditional tools and machinery, with many of the individual steps done manually.

Working with leather requires experience, especially when you want the end result to feel refined but also withstand everyday use as a dog accessory.

Trying something different with BioThane

At the same time, we kept hearing one particular request from customers: Do you have a vegan or non-leather option?

So we started experimenting. We eventually chose BioThane®, a synthetic coated webbing made in the USA that has become particularly popular for dog accessories. It is water-resistant and doesn't require many of the more complicated production steps that come with leather.

And with this new material we also saw an opportunity to do something we had wanted to try for a while: make a LEALE product right here in Zürich.

For this collection, we partnered with Nähwerk, a professional production facility by the city of Zürich.

Together, we created our signature leash and collar combination in BioThane®, starting with two colour combinations. And while the material might make the construction simpler than leather, the products are still very much made by hand: The webbing is measured and cut individually, the edges are sealed and hand-painted, the holes are punched, the hardware is riveted into place and every piece is assembled by hand.

There is something satisfying about knowing that these products were not only developed here, but are now also made just a few kilometers away from us in Zürich.

Still learning

This is where our manufacturing journey has taken us so far. I don't want to pretend that producing in Europe is the easiest or cheapest way to make a product. It isn't. Especially as a small company, the costs are significant, quantities can be challenging and developing custom products still involves a lot of trial and error.

But we have reached a point where we know the people making our products, we understand how they are made and we can actually visit the places where they are produced.

LEALE started because I couldn't find the dog leash I wanted, so I decided to make it myself. Since then, a huge part of the journey has been figuring out not only what we want to make, but how and where we want to make it.

It took quite a bit of work to get here, and there will undoubtedly be more learning ahead.