It started when we were boys. Dickie Cantrell, a family friend of ours was turning a bench of rough sawn fir planks into a rudimentary collage of soft  oiled leather. He was old and worn out from a lifetime of labor in trade skills all but lost to history.  I crawled under the bench, nailing the edges of the leather into the planks in the most inconspicuous places. My reward… leather. I wouldn’t know for years the value of leather hides, what you could create. 

             We grew up in the country where useful skills were respected. My brother and I spend years using up those hides. First it was sheaths for knives and super tools, then belts, satchels, and even a few knapsacks. Crafting leather goods was our social currency. It was a sport to us, it was our entertainment.

             I carried these skills into my career with Naval Special Operations; making custom gun belts, sheaths, holsters for my teammates, and modifying combat equipment to fit their personal preferences. Toward the end of my career i began looking for ways to transition these skills into a scalable market. 

            Years back my brother and sister in-law started a commercial upholstery business, formerly JSBrown Interiors. I would occasionally take leave from the Navy to do a job with them, mostly when it had to do with specialties like hand stitching leather. When I officially retired we got together and created Amos James, our name’s sake. 

We take pride in the quality of our work. What was our social currency has become our livelihood. We aim to provide the highest quality product in the commercial upholstery and custom furniture market.