New tradition

I may have alluded to this before, but recently I've been swooning over traditional craftsmanship that is on the come-up.

Leather, waxed cotton, wool, cork... Materials that I am falling in love with. Here are some companies that I keep running into on the internet superhighway who have a pretty strong focus on traditional craftsmanship and traditional materials, beyond just being handmade crafts.

Billykirk - PA (www.billykirk.com) - Leathergoods, est. 1999

Makr Carry Goods (www.makr.com) - Leathergoods, est. 2009?

Field Notes (fieldnotesbrand.com) - old-fashioned memo books

ML Brown & Co. (www.mlbrownandco.com)

Honorable mentions:

Freeman Transport - Montana (www.freemantransport.com) est. 2006

Rapha clothing (rapha.cc) - England

Outlier clothing (outlier.cc)

Howies "Hand-Me-Down" Collection (hmd.howies.co.uk)

Not to mention the randonneuring outfitters that peddle myriad handmade goodies (Rivendell - rivbike.com, Velo-Orange.com, Carradice Bags, Acorn Bags...)--all worth checking out.

Even a mainstream company like J Crew offers some pretty nice handcrafted stuff that fits into their traditional, maritime theme, and fetches a nice price for good reason...