We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Dyer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, thanks for joining us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

I’m Matthew Dyer, owner and craftsman at Swordslinger Custom Holsters. I’ve been around the art of leathercraft most of my life in one form or another. I first started messing around with leathercraft when I was around 9 or 10 years old with my Dad when he started making knives as a hobby and found out that if you make your own knives you need to learn to make your own leather sheaths. I vividly remember cutting myself across my thumb for the first time in the living room floor while trying to cut leather for a project. As the years went by, I didn’t do much with leathercraft until my dad started making holsters as hobby and was encouraging me to learn how to do it as well. At first, I didn’t have much interest in it as I didn’t think it would be a very good business idea. But I finally sat down with my dad and made my first leather holster in April of 2017, and I still that first holster. It went from a few holsters just for fun in 2017, to a part time business in Fall of 2018, to a full-time business in Spring of 2020.

At first all the holsters and other item were all hand stitched one at a time by me or my wife Cassie. This worked great when you are only making a few holsters here or there, but when orders started to increase we upgraded to a Tippman Boss Hand Stitcher, which was a non-motorized leather sewing machine that allowed us to make holsters and belts much quicker compared to hand stitching everything. My wife still remembers hand stitching a belt at a festival we were set up at that took her all day to stitch. We would later upgrade to a Cobra Class 3 leather sewing machine, which is all electric that we use on all our holsters to this day. One thing that made our little family business successful is we paid for everything as we went along and went in debt for nothing. If we didn’t have the cash for it, we saved until we did. This allowed us make our family business a full-time career in 2020 when many businesses were closing down because of COVID19.

Swordslinger Custom Holsters doesn’t just make gun holsters, but we also make belts, pistol cases, Bible/notebook covers, knife sheaths and much more. Every item is handcrafted by myself (Matthew Dyer) or my wife (Cassie Dyer). In the past year or so my 8-year-old son Denton has taken interest in leathercraft, and this past May he interest a holster in the World Leather Debut in the 8YO-14YO category and won 2nd place. The World Leather Debut is a worldwide leather competition once a year in Sheridan, WY. I placed 3rd place this year and last year in the Un-Tooled Holster category. My wife and I both highly value family business, as it is something that is often looked over in our culture today. We hope to teach the trade of leathercraft to our three sons in the years to come, that way when they get older they will always have that skillset to fall back on if they choose to use it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Matthew Dyer, owner and craftsman at Swordslinger Custom Holsters. I’ve been around the art of leathercraft most of my life in one form or another. I first started messing around with leathercraft when I was around 9 or 10 years old with my Dad when he started making knives as a hobby and found out that if you make your own knives you need to learn to make your own leather sheaths. I vividly remember cutting myself across my thumb for the first time in the living room floor while trying to cut leather for a project. As the years went by, I didn’t do much with leathercraft until my dad started making holsters as hobby and was encouraging me to learn how to do it as well. At first, I didn’t have much interest in it as I didn’t think it would be a very good business idea. But I finally sat down with my dad and made my first leather holster in April of 2017, and I still that first holster. It went from a few holsters just for fun in 2017, to a part time business in Fall of 2018, to a full-time business in Spring of 2020.

The primary thing that we make is custom lined leather pistol holsters. We will make them for almost every pistol you can think of, as long as we are able to obtain a “mold” for that pistol. A mold is an exact replica of the pistol made out of plastic that holster makers use to make the holster fit perfect when the client gets it in there home. I have made holsters for everything from Single Action Army cowboy style guns, to World War II Lugers, to collector 1911 pistols, to modern Glock style pistols. We have shipped our holsters as far west as Kodiak Island, Alaska to as far east as the UK, and everywhere in between. I have even made a few for some famous people as well.

All of our holsters are made using Vegetabile tan cowhide as their base. From their the sky is the limit. We can leave that cowhide smooth and dye it a variety of colors, and use different color threads. We can also carve or stamp different designs on the cowhide for the client to really make it pop. We also can inlay or accent the holster with different types of exotic leathers like shark, alligator, cape buffalo, stingray, and many other types of leather. We can also take these exotic leathers and overlay the whole front of the holster in them as well. This is very popular with our clients that have expensive 1911 style pistols.

Even though HOLSTERS is in our name. We make a lot more than that. We also make belts, knife sheaths, Bible/notebook covers, and several other things. We hope to make leather bags in the future, but haven’t got to it yet.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have tried buying advertising a few times, but it has never really worked for me. Almost all of my clients comes from Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and word of mouth from other happy clients. I try to post a picture of every order I complete for all to see.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I actually do. I have several clients that I have become friends with over the years. Several of them have been purchasing from me when I first started. So, they have truly got to see my work improve up close and personal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SwordslingerHolsters.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swordslingercustomholsters/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwordslingerCustomHolsters
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SwordslingerCustomHolsters