Ordering a bag with initials: what to expect
How embossing works, which fonts and sizes suit each bag, and when your order leaves the workshop.
Where the money goes in a ₹7,450 satchel
Leather, thread, brass and about eleven hours of hand work: a plain breakdown of what our satchel costs to make.
People often ask why a leather satchel costs ₹7,450 when bags that look similar sell for ₹2,000. Here is roughly where the money goes in our chestnut school satchel.
Leather is the largest single cost. The satchel uses about 9 square feet of 2.2 mm full-grain buffalo, and once we cut around scars and thin spots, we pay for nearly 12. At current prices that comes to about ₹2,100. The padded sleeve, cotton lining, waxed linen thread, edge paint and solid brass buckles and rings add about ₹650.
Labour is next. Cutting, skiving the edges thin where they fold, punching stitch holes, saddle-stitching, burnishing every edge and fitting the hardware takes one craftsman about eleven hours across two days. With fair wages, paid leave and the workshop rent in Topsia, that is about ₹2,000 a bag.
The rest covers the store on Free School Street, insured delivery, the care kit, the free initials and repairs for the life of the bag, which we budget at around ₹300 a bag over its lifetime. What is left is our margin, a little under a fifth of the price. A ₹2,000 bag usually uses split or coated leather, a machine lock stitch and plated buckles. It is not a cheat; it is a different product, built for a few years rather than a few decades.
