Leather Shopping in Sydney and Melbourne

At the end of November I went on holiday to Australia. I took the chance to shop for brightly coloured leather and tools as I hadn't had much success in NZ so far. Lou from shoe school advised me that the ideal leather thickness for shoes is 1.8 to 2.4mm.

Lapco claims to be the largest leather retailer in NZ and after visiting their showroom at Eden Terrace in Auckland, I found that most of their hides were too light for making shoes and I couldn't find the colours I was looking for. The Fabric Store (one of my favourite shops for beautiful fabrics) has a wonderful selection of coloured leather but most of it is light weight and expensive. I have yet to go to NZ Leather Supply in Avondale, who apparently sell a selection of leather for footwear.

After arriving in Melbourne, I went to Lefflers Leather in Kensington Rd. They have the biggest selection of leather I have seen yet. I spent more than three hours choosing what to buy because the choice was overwhelming. If you can't visit Melbourne, they have recently upgraded their website: https://www.leffler.com.au/ . I left with a box of leather, to the amusement of an old man on the bus. Here are the the colours I chose, the neon pink is my favourite:

While exploring Melbourne CBD, I found the recently opened Irregular Choice shop. Of course I didn't buy anything but it is always fun and inspiring to look at their wild and fun shoe designs.

In Sydney I went to Birdsalls Leather in Botany. They didn't have as much leather as Leffler's but their selection of kangaroo hides, hardware and tools was impressive. I bought some NZ suede in colours I couldn't find locally in NZ. A lady who worked there told me they came from Tasman Tannery in Whanganui but they only sell to suppliers who buy in bulk and are not open to the public. The price was also cheaper than what I had seen for sale in NZ. As you can imagine, I had a hard time trying to explain why I was bringing NZ leather back into NZ from Australia to the customs officer on my return...

While in Birdsalls, I was surprised to see a small rainbow of cane toad leather. The pieces were about the size of the palm of my hand. It isn't something I'd consider for making shoes but I thought it was interesting in a slightly gross way. 

My favourite hardware purchase were these great gemstone rivets. I haven't seen anything like them before and I think they would look great on my handmade jeans as well as shoes.

I can't wait to finish building my leather sewing machine so I can get started on turning all this beautiful leather into shoes! Post on how I built my sewing machine motor from a drill and an old Singer to follow.