YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
A self-described nerd, Andrew VanZyll of Grimbeard Leather says his company that sells handmade leather items for gamers was created as a passion project and an outlet.
Prior to founding the company amid the pandemic, VanZyll says he worked upwards of 35 jobs, largely due to “pretty severe adult ADHD.”
“I’ve never been able to focus on one thing at once,” he says. “I built Grimbeard so I could let that explode. I could let my brain go where it was going to take me that day.” His Adventure Journals, of which he sold around 700 last year, are a good example. They come in several colors and have unique stamps on the front. “I don’t want them to match,” he says. “I want every single one of my products to be unique.”
SBJ: What inspired the journal?
Andrew VanZyll: That was one of my very first things that I made out of leather. I loved making leather journals. Before I launched Grimbeard Leather, I probably made 40 or 50 different ones. Anywhere from just gluing leather to the outside of a book that I really liked to drilling holes in paper and binding it to pieces of leather. I kind of went through a process of how the journals worked and functioned, and then I came up with one that I could actually sell to people that looked super nice.
SBJ: Where do you source the materials?
VanZyll: I get the leather from all over the world. The buffalo I get from India, Spain, Italy, Turkey. The cow, sheep and goat skin, I primarily get that from Turkey and Spain. Rabbit pelts, I get from Spain. There are very few tanneries in the United States.
SBJ: What are journals used for?
VanZyll: The Adventure Journals are primarily for role-players. Think Dungeons and Dragons. I put a bulleted insert on the inside so you can draw maps, draw pictures. The Adventure Journals are kind of to record your campaign as you go. If you’re going on a campaign … and it’s a group of people that you’re meeting with pretty regularly, you go between sessions and you tend to forget what happened at the last session. The Adventure Journal lets you record everything about your character. A lot of people just use it for doodles, for normal journaling, for things like that. I came up with the Adventure Journal because I primarily market to game shops. I’ve been a huge nerd most of my life. I wanted to come up with something that I could relate to but also love.
SBJ: How are you building the clientele for the Adventure Journal and Grimbeard Leather?
VanZyll: I travel to game stores. I physically take my product there. Now that I’ve expanded and gotten bigger, I’m in almost 50 shops in seven states. I’ve got to put the leather in people’s hands because it’s a very tangible product. Selling leather online that’s really high quality is very difficult, because people can’t pick it up and hold it and bend it in their hands and appreciate the quality.
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