FAQ

TLG staff are available during the following times:

Monday - Thursday
8:00 AM CST - 3:45 PM CST

Friday
8:00 AM CST - 2:45 PM CST

We are closed on the weekends and all major holidays. Due to short staffing, please allow a response time of 24-48 hours.

A: Our warehouse in Saint Charles, MN is open only by appointment. Schedule an Appointment.

Since we are set up as a warehouse and not a proper retail location, we strongly suggest browsing the website before your visit and creating a wish list as prices and other information such as weight, temper, and leather tannage are not located on the item tags. You can email this list to sales@theleatherguy.org if it makes it easier, and then we can have those specific items pulled and ready to be looked at!

Please note that we cannot offer online prices in-store. If you wish to shop and purchase via a promotional sale, please do so online and we will be happy to pull your order and have it ready for you to pick up the following weekday. Any orders placed in-store will not receive promotional discounts available on the website.

Yes, we do offer wholesale/bulk pricing to our small business customers!

We have selected items that will automatically apply a discount when a certain amount is added to the cart.

If you want to place a large order (100+ SF of leather, 10K+ of lace, etc.), you can visit our Special Orders Page and place an order with our special pricing.

Don't see what you're looking for there? Fill out the form here and we will try and find what you're looking for!

We also offer Business Account Discounts for our most loyal customers. Find out more information about those discounts here!

We can still take orders over the phone, however, please note that due to short staffing, we may need to get a good phone number and name to call you back later to place the order.

Our website is open 24/7, 7 days a week, of course, so this will always be your best option for placing orders as you will not need to wait for anyone to get back to you!

We are unable to apply coupons, sale/promotional prices, or military discounts when entering orders manually. You will need to place your order via our website to get these savings.

Yes, you can submit a Sample Request. With an account, you can request up to 4 samples for free, or for a small service fee you can request up to 15.

We’ve put together a video tutorial on how to properly fold and store hides.

We do!  When you place your order, just select local pick-up as the shipping option. An email notification will be sent to you when the order is ready to be picked up from our warehouse.

Pick-Up Hours:

• Monday – Thursday: 9:00 AM – 3:45 PM
• Friday: 9:00 AM to 2:45 PM

We cannot offer pick-up outside our normal business hours.

Please note:

• Local pick-ups must be picked up within 5 business days.
• Orders that are not picked up within the 5 business day period will be canceled and incur a 25% restocking fee.

Yes, we now offer upgraded shipping options at checkout!  All you need to do is shop as normal and choose the expedited shipping method you want in the shipping section.

Please note the following:

• If you choose expedited shipping, but not expedited handling, your order will ship the next business day.
• If you choose expedited handling and expedited shipping, but place the order after 11 AM CST, your order will go out the next business day.
• Custom orders can choose expedited shipping; however, purchasing expedited shipping does not affect the lead time.
• Products like dyes, glue, and other alcohol-based products cannot ship expedited due to their contents.

Expedited handling is available for a $3 charge. Orders placed Tuesday-Friday before 11:00 AM CST will be sent out that same business day. Anything placed after 11:01 AM CST will go out the following business day.

This does not apply to custom or backorders. All major US holidays will have a 24-hour delay.

Unfortunately, we cannot change an order once it has been placed. You can place a second order, and if we have not packed up your previous order yet, we may be able to combine them, but we cannot guarantee this.

Please note that we will no longer hold orders over several days to combine at the end of sales events. We no longer have the room, so they will ship as soon as they are placed. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

Unfortunately, we no longer offer free shipping. We do offer discounted shipping on orders of $175+ for our Hobbyist and Pro Business Account members. Find out more on how to become a member.

We may offer free shipping days and coupons, so be sure to check your email or our social media so you don’t miss out!

Yes, we offer shipping insurance on every order.

At checkout, you will be able to add insurance to your order for a small fee. Should your package get lost or stolen, please reach out to us at sales@theleatherguy.org with your order number and we can start a claim.

Claim processes can take 7-10 days from start to finish.
* Shipments to business locations have other requirements for filing claims. 

All orders will be processed and shipped within 24-48 hours of completing your order. We ship during regular business hours, Monday-Friday. All orders placed Friday after 11 am will go out on the following Monday. We are closed on all major holidays, so please expect a 24-hour delay.

If you need us to process your order sooner, we do offer an “Expedited Processing” fee at checkout. This will bump your order to the front of the queue and get it processed quickly. This does not affect the shipping time, merely the processing time.

We can! We ask that you leave us a note on any additional orders or shoot us an email at sales@theleatherguy.org letting us know you would like your orders combined.

Unfortunately, we can no longer automatically combine orders as our computer system does not alert us when two orders going to the same address have been placed.

Please note that we will no longer hold orders over several days to combine at the end of sales events. We no longer have the room, so they will ship as soon as they are placed. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

Shipping costs are set by USPS, UPS, and DHL and are not determined by the number of items in your cart, but rather by your location, the item weight, and the box dimensions.

A good example is scrap or remnant leather. When ordering scrap, the shipping price is already in a higher shipping bracket as the box and contents are already over a pound in weight. Any additional scrap you add can increase the weight by 1-20 pounds each, depending on the scraps being purchased.

If you believe your package is lost or stolen, get in touch with UPS or USPS immediately and give them your tracking information. They have several ways to find out where your package was last scanned and may be able to find it for you!

It is not uncommon for USPS or UPS packages to be scanned as delivered and then show up the next day.

Unfortunately, we cannot do anything once the package has left our shop, and your local delivery persons are your best first contact. Please understand we are a small company and are willing to assist you in dealing with the carrier, however, we cannot replace or issue refunds for lost or stolen items unless you purchased shipping insurance at checkout.

It is your responsibility to ensure you’re getting packages sent to safe and secure locations, and that you are double checking that the correct address is entered at the time of order. With package theft on the rise, we need to ask that consumers take a more active role in finding lost packages.

If you believe your package was stolen, please file a police report.

We offer USPS and UPS for orders placed within the United States. For international orders, we can offer DHL, USPS, and UPS.

If you purchase leather and ship it outside the United States, you are responsible for paying the receiving country's duties, import fees, or brokerage fees.

If you refuse to pay these fees, the package will be treated as abandoned and there will be no refund given. We will not allow returns on international orders.

Orders or items may be returned if they meet the following requirements:

• Item(s) must be in their original condition, meaning they cannot be used or altered in any way.
• Item(s) must be returned the way they were received. If your item was delivered rolled, you must return it rolled.
• The items must be returned within 30 days of the purchase date.

We strongly suggest you open and inspect your packages as soon as they arrive. You may start your return if your order meets the qualification requirements above. Start your return here.

Items not eligible for returns:

• Scrap Leather
• Retired Leathers
• Custom Orders
• Clearance Items
• Select Sale Items

All items must be returned with approval. If items are returned without approval, the order will incur a 25% restocking fee.

Packages deemed "return to sender" due to an insufficient address, no known person at the address, unclaimed mail, or "refused package" will incur the return shipping fee, typically the cost as the original shipping.

This fee will come from the refund of the items purchased. There will be no refund if the return postage exceeds the cost of the items returned.

Returned international orders may also incur import fees, brokerage fees, or duties, as well.

We make every attempt possible to contact you if your address is coming up as invalid or undeliverable in our shipping system. However, if we do not hear back from you within five (5) days, we will cancel the order and it may incur a 25% restocking fee.

To ensure your package leaves our warehouse in a timely manner:

• Always put your apartment, unit, or suite number on the order, no matter how large or small the complex is.
• Double-check your house number, street address, city, state, and zip code.

There are four reasons this error typically pops up.

1. US Domestic Deer, Elk, and Bison have restricted shipping and are unavailable for international buyers to purchase directly on the website. If you wish to purchase exotic items, you will need to contact us via phone at 507-932-3795 or via email at sales@theleatherguy.org.

In addition to the shipping cost, all shipments will incur a $125 USD Customs Inspection Fee.

All other exotic leathers cannot be shipped outside the United States.

2. California State Assembly Bill No. 44 has prohibited the sale of fur and pelts. We cannot ship any fur or pelt to California. There are no exceptions.

3. Proposition 65, the State of California has prohibited the sale of flammable materials.

4. Flammable materials cannot be shipped via UPS 2nd Day Air or UPS Overnight.

If your cart does not have any of the above restrictions, and still will not let you check out, please contact us either by phone at 507-932-3795 or via email at sales@theleatherguy.org

The thickness of leather is gauged in ounces (oz). One ounce equals 1/64^th of an inch.

Square foot measures the total amount of leather available in a hide or side.

Square dimensions given within a listing for a hide or side are the cleanest and most rectangular piece you could get out of the hide, removing the rough edges, and avoiding any holes.

A: Yes, you can sew leather with your home sewing machine.

Please check your user manual, or reach out to the manufacturer to find out what thickness your machine can handle. The thickness that most home, or domestic, machines can sew would be 2 layers of 2-3 ounce leather, but it is best to know your own machine's capabilities before trying a new material on it.

We recommend that you purchase a leather needle and foot from your local fabric store before you start sewing leather.

Standard needles and feet may damage the leather, or not work on it all together.

We do have some free downloadable PDF templates for a few beginner's leather craft projects available in our blog posts!

We also sell a variety of templates created by Makers Leather Supply.

There are several types of tannages, but the three most common in our shop are:

• Vegetable tanned
• Chrome tanned
• Brain tanned

Less commonly known tannages are Alum, Old World, Oil Tanned, and Chromexcel.

Check out our Leather 101 blog for more information on leather tannage.

Leather is measured differently than fabric so if you are used to working with fabric here is a simple chart to help you know how much leather you should purchase. Please read our blog on leather measurement for more information.

Please keep in mind that you will have to figure in waste.