You know an artisan’s work when you hold it in your hands and feel the history of their craftsmanship. There’s nothing like wearing something that took a lifetime of dedication and hard work to create.
Our belt straps by Chacon are hand-crafted and personally sourced for you by one of our artisans, and they’re one of our customers’ favorites. They source and craft our cowhide and exotic leather belt straps.
A lifetime of expertise and hard work goes into every one of our Chacon belts, which have a reputation for craftsmanship and artistry. We’ll show you why people love them.
Bruce Erickson and the Chacon Belts family
Each of Tom Taylor’s Chacon belt straps is handmade in Rociado, New Mexico, by master leatherworker Bruce Erickson and his family at Chacon Belts.
Bruce and his children Lucia, Marc, and Marissa, along with their team of four traditional craftsmen, take care to ensure every Chacon belt for Tom Taylor is crafted to the highest standards of workmanship.
Bruce says that our Chacon belts are made from the best available materials. And he should know. Bruce Erickson has been hand-crafting belts for more than 40 years, since 1972, when he started belts door to door at The Santa Fe Plaza, a New Mexico treasure and a National Historic Landmark.
Your Chacon belt will be hand crafted at the Erickson family’s studio in Rociado, where Bruce and his team of artisans will choose the materials for your belt, and fabricate it to your specifications.
Every new Tom Taylor belt by Chacon is made to meet or exceed the highest standards in American belt-making. That excellence begins with the materials that Bruce selects.
How Bruce chooses the finest materials
Bruce Erickson and his belt-makers personally choose every cowhide and exotic skin for our Chacon belts, so when you feel the grain of leather, you’ll know it’s been chosen just for your Tom Taylor belt. You can tell a Chacon belt begins with the finest leather and lining.
Whether you select a cowhide belt or a belt made from exotic leather, your Chacon piece will be cut from a full hide, from the best leather of each hide. The hide for each of our Chacon belts is hand selected especially for Tom Taylor, from a supplier in El Paso, Texas.
Bruce visits his supplier in El Paso with a list of requirements for the hides he needs for our Chacon belts, and his supplier sets aside the highest-grade leather hides. From these large panels of leather, Bruce will craft each individual Chacon belt by hand, and line each in cowhide.
For our exotic leather Chacon belts, Bruce personally selects exotic skins that meet his exacting standards for quality. Tom Taylor’s exotic Chacon belts feature rarer skins that are hard to find elsewhere, like crocodile, hippopotamus, cape buffalo, or wildebeest.
To line each of our Chacon belts, Bruce uses cowhide linings, which are a higher quality material than most belts use. He says that the cowhides he uses to line our Chacon belts are chosen especially for their consistency and durability.
Anyone holding one of our Chacon belts for the first time would notice all the marks of a premium-class belt. Once Bruce has sourced the finest available materials, he’s ready to begin crafting one of Tom Taylor’s celebrated Chacon belts.
How a Chacon Belt is crafted
To hand-craft a Chacon belt strap, Bruce starts by cutting strips of cowhide or exotic leather from a full animal hide. This is when the master leatherworker puts his experience to work by selecting the best parts of each hide to be cut into leather strips for belts.
Bruce then lines the belt in cowhide specifically chosen for Tom Taylor’s Chacon belts. He says that the linings of our Chacon belts are of a higher quality than you’ll find from other premium leather shops.
Once a Chacon belt strap is lined, Bruce carefully punches the holes for a buckle, and adds snaps for the beltkeeper. Then he uses a tool to feather the edges of the belt, which makes the edges smooth and rounded, and gives the belt a perfectly uniform shape.
To put the finishing touches on a Chacon belt, Bruce binds all the materials together, and then thins out the edges of the belt. When one of Bruce’s Chacon belts is complete, it’s put on display in our showroom on the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It takes all of Bruce’s leatherworking experience to craft a Chacon belt strap. When you hold one of our Chacon belts in your hands, you can see and feel the life-long dedication of a master artisan.
Get to know our Chacon Belts
Browse our collection of cowhide and exotic belt straps to see Bruce Erickson’s craftsmanship for yourself. We welcome you to see why so many people admire the caliber and artistry of Tom Taylor’s Chacon belts.
