Rose Anvil is an accessories brand founded in Utah. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In 2020 MEL Magazine pointed out that Rose Anvil "doesn't even make shoes." Its founder, Weston Kay, had become known on YouTube for cutting other companies' shoes in half, and two videos on the inside of Dr. Martens boots drew more than a million views combined. The Salt Lake City leather shop now sells boots of its own, built with partner factories.
The habit started with a letdown. Kay told The Herald Journal that he once bought a belt and a wallet at a department store and watched both fall apart quickly, so he decided he could make his own. He was a Utah State University student at the time, and he once taught a packed room of fellow students to stitch a wallet. "No one knows how to do leatherworking," he said.
The company calls Kay a third-generation leatherworker. Its FAQ says the leather goods are handmade in its Utah shop and made to order, with a usual lead time of one to three business days. Wallets and belts are stitched by hand with Ritza thread, and the company says hand stitching is several times stronger than the lock stitch a sewing machine makes. Its specialty leathers come from two US tanneries, S.B. Foot and Seidel.
Some of the ideas are odd in a good way. The Lasso Link camera strap holds together without a screw or a stitch, only interlocking leather links that flex like a spine. You add or remove links to change the length. Blood Core leather, made with Seidel, hides a red center under a dark surface, so every scuff on a belt shows red. "The harder you wear it, the more it bleeds," the shop says, which may be the only product pitch that asks for scratches.
The boots work differently. The Smugs sneaker-boot, a collaboration with Goral, is built in Sheffield, England. Nicks makes the Tanker boot, and Russell Moccasin hand-sews the OG Moc, which sells for $875. A Swasey wallet, hand stitched to order, lists at $69, and Rose Anvil backs its leather goods with a lifetime warranty.
The teardown habit made it into the catalog. The Smugs product page lists a video of one cut in half, so you can see the inside of the shoe before you decide to buy it.
Rose Anvil's Chunky Dunky ring is a tungsten band inlaid with material cut from a deconstructed pair of Nike SB Dunk Low Pro x Ben & Jerry's Chunky Dunky sneakers.
