Tom the Tailor works out of his home-shop in Minneapolis, MN and offers a broad range of leather and cloth working services. He’s a passionate motorhead too so we paid him a visit the other day to talk shop on current and future projects. Here’s the yield:

One of the challenges that buyers of custom work face is obtaining the commissioned product that they envisioned from their supplier. Tom, for example, hired a fellow artist to make this promotional poster for him. Tom requested an Indiana Jones scene of a man swinging across a pit of crocodiles clad in custom leather goods. Art is open to interpretation as we all know, so in unique exercise of that statement Tom’s commissioned artist made this awesome Viking with a falcon… which was completely off topic. Fortunately, as a vendor of custom products, Tom is sympathetic to this problem… however, he may just not give a shit and “leather you up” a Viking skin mask or something… In reality though, his work is awesome and he’s very talented. Let me tell and show you more.I have these old saddle bags that my pa left for me years ago that were used by the U.S.P.S. in the late 1800’s across ‘Merica on horseback. Think of all the cool shit that has resided within that leather sack…. Absinthe, ammo, beef jerky, Mexican pot, dirty money and TNT… to name a few of the thoughts that came to mind. They were ragged and torn, but Tom brought them back to life and they now tear down the road on my Shovel with the holes patched and new straps in place. Here’s Marcus kick starting the whip… people have wondered why a fashionista like Marcus would be wearing white socks, but let the haters know that they’re albicant, which is a vague shade of earthen colors.

Tom’s garage held some hidden treasures including this Moto Guzzi rat bike complete with fatbob tanks and custom metal work, which can be vaguely seen in my noir, (f)art photo. He’s a big fan of the British bike scene and has another Guzzi which can be seen below. The ’48 F100, below this text, is a cool build in progress.

Overall, Tom does some very good work with a wide range of products. I don’t have the photos ready for some of his niche services, but those will come soon. In the meantime check out his website if you want to learn more. Although he doesn’t focus on making complete leather product lines, he’s very flexible in services and can tackle virtually any project if you’re willing to meet on fair ground. He put the leather straps on this purse above, for example, and will be doing a handful of other projects like that for my friends in the near future.