Red Hare Leather

Red Hare Leather is a queer-owned, one-person Kansas City leather-goods maker founded in 2015 by artist Faye Steiner-Woods, hand-cutting and hand-stitching wallets, bags, harnesses, collars, cuffs, bow ties, and home goods from a home workshop. There is no public storefront — the business sells online and through markets and wholesale partners — and inclusive, body-positive fit is a stated core of the work.¹²³

Description

Red Hare Leather is a locally owned artisan leather company producing handmade, hand-sewn goods designed and crafted by Kansas City-based artist Faye Steiner-Woods.¹ The catalog spans wearables, accessories, and home goods — wallets, bags, clutches, key chains, leather-wrapped flasks, bow ties — alongside the harnesses, collars, cuffs, and chest pieces the studio is best known for.¹³ Items are hand-cut and hand-stitched, and much of the work is made to individual body measurements.³

Inclusive, body-positive craftsmanship is central to the brand. Steiner-Woods has described the mission as helping “people feel good in their bodies,” with explicit attention to “bigger bodies, trans bodies, disabled bodies, queer bodies.”³ The studio is queer-owned and locally rooted.¹³

Ownership and history

Red Hare Leather was founded in 2015 by Faye Steiner-Woods, who has described co-founding the venture with their twin sibling, Beth Woods, shortly thereafter.² Steiner-Woods studied art with a focus on printmaking and began working in leather after encountering an overpriced ($45) keychain on a trip to Brooklyn, New York, and deciding to make one themselves.¹² A chance reconnection with a high-school friend, Katie Mabry Van Dieren, led to an invitation to vend at the Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair, which catalyzed the formal launch of the business.²

The business is operated as a one-person venture from a home workshop.² Steiner-Woods is a Kansas City local and active in the community, with reported involvement in Sammy’s Window Clothing Closet and FosterAdopt Connect, and has built their family through foster care.²

Note on location: press accounts differ on neighborhood — a 2021 Startland News profile places the home shop in “Kansas City’s historic northeast,”² while The Pitch describes a “basement workshop” in a “Midtown home.”³ A street address (4606 Tracy Ave, 64110) appears in third-party aggregator listings but is uncorroborated by the owner or primary sources and conflicts with the Historic Northeast description; it is not treated here as a verified pin.

Links

• Official site: http://www.redhareleather.com/ ¹
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redhareleather/ ¹
• Eventeny vendor profile: https://www.eventeny.com/company/?c=7435 ⁴

Sources

Disputes

None at this time. (Neighborhood/address is unresolved between sources but is a sourcing gap, not a dispute — see Ownership and history.)

Footnotes

1. http://www.redhareleather.com/ — asserts: Red Hare Leather is a queer-owned, locally owned artisan leather company offering handmade, hand-sewn goods designed and crafted by KC-based artist Faye (Steiner-)Woods; products include wallets, bags, harnesses, collars, cuffs, key chains, bow ties, leather-wrapped flasks, and home goods; contact (816) 679-8514 / woods.faye@gmail.com; active online store. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. https://www.startlandnews.com/2021/08/red-hare-leather/ — asserts: founded 2015 (co-founded with twin sibling Beth Woods shortly after); owner Faye Steiner-Woods; home-based one-person venture in “Kansas City’s historic northeast”; began after a Brooklyn keychain inspiration; launched via Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair invite from Katie Mabry Van Dieren; involved with Sammy’s Window Clothing Closet and FosterAdopt Connect; built family through foster care; no brick-and-mortar, sold via wholesale (Mid Coast Modern, ULAH, Shop Local KC) and online. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. https://www.thepitchkc.com/service-oriented-red-hare-leather-offers-inclusive-leather-goods-that-go-beyond-just-kink/ — asserts: owner Faye Woods; hand-stitched/hand-cut goods including harnesses, chest pieces, wearables, accessories, home goods, fetish gear, koozies, dog/human collars, wallets; made to individual body measurements; operates from a basement workshop in a Midtown home; inclusive mission quote (“make people feel good in their bodies … bigger bodies, trans bodies, disabled bodies, queer bodies”). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. https://www.eventeny.com/company/?c=7435 — asserts: Red Hare Leather active company/vendor profile, Kansas City, Missouri (corroborates ongoing market presence); see also Boulevardia market listing https://boulevardia.com/explore_market/red-hare-leather/. ↩