Ryan Wasson has long had an affinity for timeless tools and goods.
At 16, he performed blacksmith work as a hobby, and later, when needing money, bought and sold antique tools online. He also was a collector, with some 800 anvils to his name at one point in life. He’s earned the nickname Ryan the Anvil.
A former youth minister in Cape Girardeau, Wasson moved to Springfield to start a family around the time his leather-making venture was born in 2005.
His career in leather started with a motorcycle.
After relocating to the Queen City, Wasson began building a bike from scratch. When he got to the seat, he wanted leather but couldn’t find one to his liking in his price range. So he designed his own.
“It was a piece,” he admits of the bike, so he started selling off the parts.
The flop led to a huge gain in the form of the seat, bringing him a 300-400 percent return on investment. He knew he had something special after selling half-a-dozen more. Wasson got a domain name and started attending motorcycle rallies to get the word out.
Now, Anvil Customs LLC produces roughly 200 kinds of leather items, and his product line includes the likes of motorcycle seats and saddlebags, key fobs, bracelets, gun holsters, chains, belts and wallets. Bifold wallets are his shop’s most popular item.
“I started selling the heck out of wallets,” he says. “Everybody needs a wallet and belt.”
American made
The anvil comes into play from time to time in production – useful in shaping leather – but it’s largely symbolic for Wasson’s business.
Like the historic tools, Anvil Customs’ products are made to last.
“People are tired of inferior products,” he says.
During the 1980s to the 2000s, Wasson says Americans favored items built overseas.
But that’s changing.
“They want to own something that is different from what most of the public has,” he says.
His leather is sourced from St. Louis-based Hermann Oak Leather Co., which uses a vegetable tanning process on steer hides.
Hermann Oak Leather Sales Manager Jeremy Thoene says all of the cowhides sold are sourced from North America, largely in the Midwest and South.
“It’s amazing to see, since we’re a tannery, what people make out of the products,” Thoene says, noting companies use the leather in the equestrian horse trade or for personal goods, like Anvil.
Wasson buys 20-25 sides of cow a month, which are then shaped, carved and sewed into items with a lifetime warranty. He also buys exotic skins for one-off items, such as a lizard wallet or alligator purse.
Downtown to the world
A year ago, Wasson opened a shop for Anvil Customs in 1,500 square feet in the former Woolworth building leased from developer Scott Tillman. The Park Central Square space serves as his production headquarters, where goods are handcrafted on-site.
The shop is open by appointment and during First Friday Art Walk, but it largely offers a good view of the square as products are created. Fans do visit, though, even from as far as France, in one case.
Still, nearly all of Anvil Customs’ products – priced below $20 to hundreds of dollars – are sold online.
The company has the social media numbers to prove it.
Anvil Customs is approaching 30,000 followers on Facebook, and Wasson keeps more than 5,000 Instagram fans up to date with a steady stream of photos.
A quick peek shows skull-emblazoned wallets, steels chains and goods with messages like, “Live Fast. Die Young.”
It speaks to his client base, which is largely built around motorcycle enthusiasts but stretches to anyone who wants quality leather goods, including a large following by service members.
Declining to disclose revenue, Wasson says the shop typically sells 150-170 orders per month. Summers are slower, but the holiday season brings in over 300 monthly sales.
On Facebook, 121 reviews rate Anvil Customs a 4.9 out of 5 stars. One reviewer says, “The wallet chain could probably tow a semi.” Others describe the products as “heirloom-quality functional art.”
Springfieldian Mark Hillenburg owns two wallets from Anvil Customs.
Hillenburg, who lives near Anvil in the Heer’s building, says he tries to buy local goods with enduring qualities.
“I had a wallet that had come apart. It was just a commercial wallet,” says Hillenburg, executive director of marketing for Digital Monitoring Products, noting he upgraded to two $80 Anvil wallets with lifetime warranties. “It really starts to break in and mold to your body.
“It’s one of those things that you make the investment and you never to have to worry about this again.”
