” We don’ t use computerdriven machines or other mass manufacturing techniques. We use the talents of our skilled artisans— one artisan, one machine.”
continues to travel monthly to the store out west. On weekends, all of the children help out making smaller items for the company.
“ I make all the kids work,” he smiles.“ My oldest son is the most experienced belt maker.”
A lot of his customers are repeat ones. Throughout the year, tourists and locals visit the shop. But Kline also sees international shoppers here for American made items. Several years ago, Kline took Japanese lessons from Mikiko Kory, a customer and Japanese teacher.
“ I had so many Japanese speaking customers that worked at Cummins, I decided to learn the language,” he explains. photo by Karen E. Farley
“ When they came to visit Nashville, they were looking for something made in America. I wanted to be able to help them. We still get a lot of foreign customers looking for quality items.”
Kory became co-owner at K. Bellum, the second Nashville store located in the original leather shop on Franklin Street. The second store carries a line of leather goods made by artisans from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. They also carry some of the leather goods sold at the store in Nashville.
Moonshine Leather products are also popular throughout Asia. Kline has two distributors of his leather goods in Seoul and Tokyo.
A few years ago, Sunho You approached Kline to carry his products in her boutique in Seoul. While studying at Indiana University she visited his shop many times. After graduation, she returned to Korea and opened a store carrying original items.
Upstairs in the loft at the shop on Van Buren are recycled firemen’ s gear and leather items.“ Black Helmet approached me in 2011 to design a line of wallets using recycled firemen’ s bunker gear and leather,” Kline says. Black Helmet is based in Miami and was founded by a fireman, for firefighters. All the designs are hand-drawn, and a portion of the proceeds go to support charitable organizations.
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