C. Asmath Basha & Co.

Our shop is tucked away on Wuthucattan Street in the Periamet area, which has always been the heart of the leather trade here. C. Asmath Basha & Co. has been around for quite a while, and we’ve stayed in this same spot through plenty of changes in the neighborhood. The building is one of those older structures with narrow hallways and high ceilings, and it’s usually packed to the rafters with different types of leather hides. If you walk in, the first thing you’ll notice is the strong scent of tanned leather, which is something we don’t even smell anymore after spending every day here. We don’t have a fancy showroom with glass displays; instead, we just have stacks of skins that customers can flip through to find what they need. Most of our regulars are local shoemakers or people who manufacture bags and belts. We spend a lot of our time grading the leather and making sure there aren't any bad marks on the pieces we sell. It’s a family-run operation, so there is usually one of us sitting at the old wooden desk near the front door. We don't do any big marketing or have a polished sales pitch. We just know our leather and we try to give people a fair price for it. The street outside is always noisy with carts and delivery bikes, but inside it’s just us doing what we’ve always done for years without much fuss.