From Colombia With Love: The John Candor Story

A Perfect Match

John Candor came to life during a trip to Colombia when two friends were visiting their family and friends there. With their desire to start a leather goods brand and wanting to help the local economy, it was a perfect match. But getting started wasn’t easy and didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took a few years.

Over the past years we have invested thousands of dollars and countless hours into fine tuning and creating samples of our products with different artisans until finally selecting the best match. We visited numerous leather tanners to ensure they could make the full grain and top grain leathers we requested while adhering to Colombia’s strict environmental laws.

Supporting a Growing Economy

Over 50 families, many of whom are single mothers and heads of households, contribute to bring our products to market and they are equally entitled to satisfying and balanced lives, and the pursuit of happiness. We are not successful unless they partake in that success. We continue to innovate and develop new leathers and products, so that you too can enjoy the finest handcrafted leather goods without having to break the bank. We are committed to supporting their economy with our business and other post conflict community-building initiatives following the decades of civil war, narcoterrorism, and lack of opportunities.

Shut-down

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck it almost shut John Candor down. In Feb, 2020 we were finalizing raw materials and designs for a late summer, 2020 Kickstarter campaign. But by the 3rd week of March all our raw material factories were closed. As the weeks, then months continued we had no idea if they’d reopen or not. Thankfully by December we received word that we could reboot our Kickstarter plans and we went live June 1, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic crippled small businesses worldwide, especially in countries where government support was limited or non-existent. Colombia was no exception, leaving family businesses treading water and fending for themselves. John Candor is an opportunity to revive many families hopes and dreams while pursuing the craft they love.

Why ‘Candor’?

Candor represents the straightforward, honest, and sincere expression in how we run our business and bring our products to life. We want every customer to love their John Candor goods as much as we do, and we proudly stand behind each one, never take shortcuts, honor our commitments, and admit when we can do things better. Our business approach is to be straightforward, unreserved, sincere and welcome customer feedback. We are passionate about creating and providing our customers with exceptional products that are excellent in quality, responsibly produced, & sustainable for future generations. We pay higher prices to accomplish our mission of only using the right materials and following fair trade practices, then pass on savings to you by going ‘direct-to-consumers’.

John Candor is a Veteran owned, small family business based out of Dallas, Texas that is partnered with third-generation leather artisans in Medellin, Colombia. We are simple guys and two friends who enjoy time with family and friends, new adventures, sharing good food and playing soccer on the weekends.