Meet Chubatemsu, a self-trained calfskin expert whose custom brand ‘Naga Leatherman’ is arising as a premium and contemporary name in the business. His bespoke leather goods, such as wallets, purses, bags, belts, holsters, and harnesses, are luxurious, long-lasting, fashionable, and custom-made.
Leather goods made by hand require a great deal of skill and dedication from the maker. When one considers the exquisite craftsmanship of Chubatemsu’s leather goods, it is surprising to learn that he had no formal training and learned all of his skills from YouTube tutorials and, of course, countless hours of practice and trial and error.
In a teta-a-tete, the craftsman tells The Morung Express, “All it needed to create a spark for a passion that ultimately would become a full-time occupation was an old leather file case, the kind you tuck in your academic mark-sheets away.”
“In exchange for passing HSLC, one of my sisters gave me this file case. One day, as I was dusting it off, I realized that it was made of high-quality leather and that, after eight years, the condition was still like new. My enthusiasm for leathers was rekindled as a result of my sudden fascination.
That was in 2018, during one of his lowest points in his life, when he switched jobs but was unable to find fulfillment and was on the verge of depression. Chubatemsu tried working in a call center, became a sales executive, became a travel agent, and opened a Naga food hotel in Paltan Bazaar, Guwahati, after graduating from Guwahati with a degree in accounting.
I was agitated and dissatisfied with my life. That was the point at which this flash of understanding my enthusiasm unfolded with that cowhide record case,” he thinks back. ” I started looking online for leather products, looked into the accessories used, the tools needed, and did a lot of DIYs with an obsession.
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It’s one thing to find a passion, but it’s quite another to turn it into a career that requires a lot of resources. Chubatemsu’s life has not been easy, as tragedy has befallen his family one after the other. When he was just two years old and his sister was only six months old, his police constable father passed away in 1994. After that, in 2011, he lost his mother. Since then, he had the support of his kind relatives to help him get by.
I was just a leather enthusiast with no professional training or resources. I carried Rs 50,000 that my mother had left me when she died. With this cash I purchased some calfskin making apparatuses and started my introduction to this specialty.”
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