Leather Masters 31 Anniversary & New Dallas Location Grand Opening!/April 11

This information is on the leather masters website for everyone.

In April 1989 David Carranza and Tony DaCosta saw the need in San Jose for a leather store that had quality leather clothing at reasonable prices. They started by making vests in their garage. After a couple of months they were able to move to a location above a bar named “The Heat” on Julian St. in San Jose. People laughed when they first saw the store. It was a little store, in one room, one display case with various C&B toys, wristbands, and wallets. There was also one vest and one harness hanging on the wall. They didn’t have the finances to stock a store, so they built their business reinvesting the sales into more products. With in four months they grew into a second larger room and then out-grew the building. They moved to a building at 969 Park Ave. At the time, the building was separated into three different stores. Leather Masters was in the center, with a gun shop on the left and a gay newspaper to the right of them. They only used 600 square feet of the 1200 square feet that they had. But within a few months they had to expand into the entire space. They grew the business by asking their customers what they wanted to see in the store. Customers began asking for a catalog so they could give to friends outside of San Jose, so in 1991 Leather Masters came out with their first mail order catalog. Once the catalog was out, their business started contacting Leather Masters to see if they would wholesale come of the products they made. Leather Masters then began supplying a few stores come of their products. In August 1991, the owner of the building asked if they would be interested in purchasing the building. So, thanks to a customer who has gone on to be a good friend and a winner of an International Lather Title, Leather Masters was able to buy the building. Over the next couple years Leather Masters eventually took over the entire 300 square foot building and sponsored three International Titleholders. Our community began contacting us to do lectures on the leather, BDSM lifestyles and sexuality. So they soon started doing their own seminars. In 1996, responding to the new viable business of online sales, Leather Masters launched their online website. In 1999 and 2000 business was booming, so Leather Masters began looking at other locations for a new store. In June of 2001 they decided to open a store in Allentown Pennsylvania. Dave and Tony went to Allentown, visited a friend and fell in love with Allentown. They found a building and bought it located at 1023 W. Hamilton Street. After they purchased the building in Allentown, things started to get rough. The Dotcom market crashed with affected them greatly in San Jose. Then September 11th, which was another huge hit on the economy. After a lot of discussion they decided that they needed to go ahead with the opening in Allentown as planned. They felt that they needed to do what they could to help stabilize the economy, especially since this store would be on the East Coast. It was a rough 1st year but they survived and then things picked up greatly. Allentown was open successfully for 4 years. In 2004 a bar owner in San Antonio contacted the owners to open a bar store in San Antonio Texas. Since this was where one of the owners mother lived they decided to do so. 2005 was a turbulent year. The store in Allentown although successful, had to close due to harassment by the city of Allentown PA. Then during the same time the bar that we opened the bar store in ws not doing well. So both Allentown and San Antonio store closed. The saving grace was that we were contacted by Leather by Boots about buying their store out in Dallas Texas during the same time. So in June 2005 we opened Leather Masters, Dallas Texas. Leather by Boots added it’s 25 year history to Leather Masters. They had their own unique designs and a great manufacturing department. We have now been located in Dallas Texas for over 15 years. Specifically Deep Ellum. Due to the change of atmosphere in Deep Ellum, we are moving to a new location.