Friendship Leather Goods

You’ll find Friendship Leather Goods over on Bhavani Amman Koil Street. We’re at number three, right in the Durga Nagar area near Sanatorium. The street can get pretty crowded during festival times because of the temple nearby, but usually, it’s just the normal hum of the neighborhood. We work with leather mostly. There’s always that smell of tanned hides in the air when you walk in, which some people don't like, but we've grown used to it over the years. We have a few workbenches where we cut and stitch. It’s a lot of manual work, sitting on low stools and making sure the needles go through right. Sometimes the electricity goes out for an hour or two, and we just sit outside or work by the light from the door. It’s not a big factory, just a local shop where a few of us put things together. We’ve got scraps of leather and spools of thread all over the place. It looks like a mess to an outsider, but we have our own system. Most people who come by are regulars from around the area or folks who heard about us from a neighbor. We don't spend money on advertising or anything. We just keep the doors open and do the work. It’s been this way for a long time. It’s hard work on the hands, but it’s what we know how to do. We usually close up when it gets dark because the street lights aren't great.