American Bench Craft: A Wallet You Won't Have to Replace
Jason and Chris Angelini's Massachusetts leather shop builds wallets from a single piece of hide, riveted instead of stitched. I've carried one for years.
Most wallets fall apart at the seams. The leather holds up fine; the stitching gives out, the lining frays, and a few years in you’re shopping again. Jason and Chris Angelini, who run American Bench Craft out of Massachusetts, built their flagship product around that one observation: get rid of the stitching and you get rid of the failure point.
Their Hammer Riveted Wallet is cut from a single piece of leather and held together with solid rivets. No seams to tear. The wallet comes in a few leather and hardware combinations. I carry the black leather with silver rivets. The brown with gold fasteners is the other one I’d buy.
Yankee Craftsmanship
Jason runs design; Chris handles operations and marketing. When they founded American Bench Craft, they committed to fully U.S.-made goods, sourced from American suppliers. Easier and cheaper to send the work overseas, obviously. They didn’t. The leather is tanned in Pennsylvania and assembled by hand at their Massachusetts shop.
They launched in 2014 and have been adding pieces since — the wallet was the first, but the line has expanded to a women’s card holder, a leather key fob, and a field notebook cover, among other things. The premise is the same across the catalog: build it once, build it well, build it here.
The Men’s Working Belt
The other piece of theirs I own is the Men’s Working Belt, and it’s the best belt I’ve ever had. It’s heavy U.S. steerhide bridle leather, 1.5 inches wide and a hair over an eighth of an inch thick. I expected it to fight my belt loops; it doesn’t. The buckle is your choice of solid brass or stainless steel. Either way it’s the kind of hardware that will outlast the leather, which will itself outlast a decade of cheaper belts from the big-box stores.
Where to Buy
American Bench Craft is online at store.americanbenchcraft.com. Use code MODERNYANKEE2015 for 15% off.
This is what Yankee-made looks like when somebody actually means it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes the American Bench Craft Hammer Riveted Wallet different from a standard leather wallet? It’s cut from a single piece of leather and held together with solid rivets instead of stitching. That eliminates the seam — which is where most wallets actually fail — so there’s nothing to fray or unravel over time.
Where is American Bench Craft made? Everything is assembled by hand at their Massachusetts shop. The leather is tanned in Pennsylvania. They’ve committed to U.S.-made goods from American suppliers since they founded the company in 2014.
Is the Men’s Working Belt worth the price over a big-box store belt? It’s heavy U.S. steerhide bridle leather, 1.5 inches wide and over an eighth of an inch thick, with a solid brass or stainless steel buckle. The hardware will outlast the leather; the leather will outlast a decade of cheaper belts. If you’re buying it once and not thinking about it again, yes.