Harold's Bags and Backpacks - They'll Accompany You for a Lifetime
At Harold's, tradition is paramount. For over 80 years, the Obertshausen-based family business has been producing high-quality, durable bags. In 1936, Nikolaus Schmelz, the grandfather of the current owner, founded Harold's as an exclusive bag manufacturer. Demand for timeless, exquisite leather bags soon outstripped supply, and in 1955, with the entry of the next generation into the company, production was gradually relocated to Italy, Colombia, and India. To this day, Harold's benefits from this long-standing cooperation, ensuring that its handcrafted leather bags are produced under fair, transparent conditions. Stability, reliability, and compliance with social standards, in turn, guarantee the high quality of craftsmanship in the factories.
One of Harold's' special features is its robust and expressive leather. The hides used are exclusively leftovers from food production. The cattle either graze year-round in the Andes at over 3,000 meters above sea level, far from civilization, feeding on natural grasses, or are kept in large herds in East India. Vegetable tanning ensures that the leather remains recognizable as a purely natural material, has a wonderful feel, and develops an individual patina with use.
The Transition to Sustainability at Harold's
In its third generation, with trained architect Thilo Schmelz, Harold's is evolving into a sustainable company with a constructive design language. To remain true to the company philosophy "Companions for a Lifetime," Harold's works intensively on the durability of its materials, the quality of its craftsmanship, and the timelessness of its briefcases, backpacks, and small leather goods. The goal is to create long-lasting, high-quality products; the longer and more intensively a bag is used, the better its ecological footprint. Consequently, Harold's has been manufacturing selected series at the company's headquarters in Obertshausen again since 2010, thus representing a new era in fine leathercraft. For some series, only leftover leather waste products from the food industry are used. Even the cotton fabrics are made of organic quality and woven in Germany according to our own recipes to produce particularly tear- and abrasion-resistant fabrics.
Harold's - Handcrafted Leather Goods with Attention to Detail
The secret of Harold's success can be summarized quite simply: carefully selected materials, timeless design, and sustainable production are combined with skilled craftsmanship. This creates tried-and-tested classics with functional details. Harold's leather bags are elaborately handcrafted and develop their own character over time. The company is widely known for its ability to combine functionality with the special features of natural leather and traditional leather processing techniques.