Image courtesy of Sophisticate Supply
Adam Stampfel
Adam Stampfel has worn many hats. He worked in IT before serving as a police officer for 10 years. He left law enforcement to start his own business in 2018 called The Getaway Driver, where he chauffeured customers to breweries and wineries around Northern Virginia.
Nowadays, Stampfel wears a leather hat — one he hand made by himself as the owner of Sophisticate Supply leather goods.
Stampfel started leatherwork in early 2020. His beverage tour business was taking off but the mostly Thursday through Sunday work schedule left him with free time that he never had when working as a cop.
“I had seen some videos of people on Youtube doing leatherwork stuff and I thought, 'That looks relaxing.’ When you’re hand stitching something it’s the same movement, it’s very fluid and it’s something you do mindlessly,” explained Stampfel. While he admitted his first few leather items were rough, he kept perfecting his skills.
On March 14, 2020, Stampfel gave his last wine tour before the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to shut down for what he initially hoped would only be for a few months. Soon it became apparent the shutdown would not be ending quickly, but he didn’t consider turning his hobby into a business until a friend of his asked to buy one of his leather tote bags. She then shared it on a Facebook group and Stampfel said he immediately received messages from five women who wanted him to make their own custom tote bags.
Stampfel then decided to start another business. “Luckily, I have a super supportive wife,” he said with a chuckle. He named his new company Sophisticate Supply with a slogan: “Live sophisticated.” His mission is to create quality, hand-crafted leather goods at a more affordable price. “Live sophisticated is a simple way of saying that bespoke leather products don’t have to be out of reach for everyone,” said Stampfel.
He has created over 1,000 leather items since he started, which includes catchall trays, coasters, mousepads, bags, hats, keychains, sunglass cases and bookmarks. He also creates custom pieces with different options for hardware, leather color, thread color and features like number of pockets.
Image courtesy of Sophisticate Supply
Stampfel began selling items at in-person markets like the West End Farmers Market in September 2020, where he ended up selling more items in one day than he had for a month previously.
“I came home and I was like, 'This is it! It’s the face to face. It’s the in-person, meeting people,'” Stampfel said excitedly. He found that customers enjoyed seeing the items in person and often asked questions about the leatherwork process – which he is more than happy to share.
There are two main types of leather that he works with, vegetable tanned and chrome tanned, which differ in the time they take to produce and price. Vegetable tanned leather is tanned using natural materials like leaves or bark and takes 25-45 days to make. Chrome tanned leather is tanned using chromium salts and can be made in 24-48 hours, making it more affordable. It also tends to be softer and more pliable. Stampfel explained that genuine leather is actually considered the pressboard of leather because it is made from leather scraps that are mashed together and then coated.
Leather products also vary based on grain, which is the level of skin from the animal (typically cows). Full grain is the topmost layer of skin and the strongest. It often has natural variations and if you look closely you can see things like fat wrinkles, bug bites and scars. Topgrain is the middle layer of skin and the bottom layer is called the splits, which is like suede. It doesn’t have a grain unless a man-made coating is added.
The seams of the item being made are glued to keep them together. For hand stitched items, holes are hand punched with a stitching iron. The iron can have one or six teeth and different ones are used depending on the size of the item being made. Once the item is stitched the end of the thread is burned. Edges can then be left rough or finished using an edger, sandpaper, some type of burnishing oil and a lot of patience, according to Stampfel. Some products are stitched with a sewing machine.
Stampfel has always been detail-oriented and a planner, but as a former police officer, he never considered himself creative. “I wouldn’t have said before I started doing this that I was creative at all. I wouldn’t say the hallmark of most law enforcement is creativity. There is certainly a gray area when you’re doing law enforcement, but there is a very black-and-white, yes-and-no way of doing stuff. We did have time to come up with creative solutions to certain problems but making purple leather pouches or designing a tote bag and putting decorative stitching in it, it’s not something I would have said five years ago, ‘Oh, yeah, I can see myself doing that’,” Stampfel said.
Stampfel says the hardest part of his job is figuring out which items are most popular with customers because it tends to vary so much. He also creates a custom name for the items he sells, like the King Street Market tote bag, which he says can be a challenge to come up with.
Originally from New York, Stampfel has lived in Virginia since 2005 and in the Alexandria area since 2017. He has quickly engrained himself in the local small business community and loves to support local craft beer like Port City Brewing Co. He even makes six-pack carriers made from leather with brass rivets, drink sleeves, coaster with "drink local" stamped on them, and keychains with beer bottle caps sewn in them.
Stampfel has big dreams for Sophisticate Supply and would love to open a store on King Street someday to share his knowledge and passion for leather goods and local businesses with a wider audience.
For now, you can purchase his items through Made in ALX or through SophisticateSupply.com. If you want to check out Stampfel’s work in person then stop by Made in ALX’s holiday pop-up shop at 1 Wales Alley in Old Town.
Image courtesy of Sophisticate Supply
