Horween Leather Company
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| Private | |
| Industry | Leather tannery |
| Founded | Chicago, Illinois (1905) |
| Founder | Isadore Horween |
| Headquarters | 2015 North Elston Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Revenue | $25 million (2012) |
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Number of employees
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160 (2012) |
| Website | www |
Horween Leather Company is one of the oldest continuously running tanneries in the United States, and the only one located in Chicago.
Isadore Horween founded the company in 1905, and worked in it until 1949. His two sons, Arnold Horween (Chairman and President; 1949–84) and Ralph Horween, became executives of the company and worked in it after their careers as All American football players for the Harvard Crimson, and playing in the National Football League.
Arnold's son Arnold Horween, Jr., worked in it from 1953–2003, and his son Arnold "Skip" Horween III has worked in it from 1972–present. The fifth generation of Horweens, Nicholas (Nick) Arnold Horween, has worked at the company from 2009–present.
Horween Leather Company offers an array of tannages using primarily cowhide and horsehide, and also using smaller quantities of calf and bison hides. Its leather is used in a number of products including sports equipment, sports and casual footwear, bags, wallets, briefcases, belts, coats, jackets, and other apparel and accessories. It is known for its production of Shell Cordovan (the Chicago Tribune called it the "Cordovan capital of the world"), professional football leather, and Chromexcel, among other leathers. It is the exclusive supplier of leather for National Football League footballs, and also supplies the leather that is used for National Basketball Association basketballs.
Horween Leather Company is located in a five-story block-long factory at 2015 North Elston Avenue, at Ashland Avenue near the Chicago River).
Isadore Horween (whose surname was originally Horwitz or Horowitz), who had learned the leather business in his native Ukraine, lived just outside Kiev, immigrated to the United States in 1893. He obtained his first job at a tannery in the U.S. through a contact he made at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. For 12 years he worked in one of the then-two-dozen tanneries in Chicago.
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Wikipedia