Leather goods designer Daniel Foytik has had his share of adversity. Raised in a remote town in Siberia, Russia, he was diagnosed in 2004 with ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease causing spinal fusion. About a year and a half ago, COVID-19 caused him to close his Charlottesville leather goods storefront on Second Street. Now, he’s going through an emotional divorce from his wife and business partner, Alisa.
Still, Foytik says none of that is going to stop him from continuing to make handcrafted products under the Foytik Leather name. “I need to work hard,” he says.
Foytik says he’s been fascinated with leather—“the smell, the touch, the pliability and durability”—since he was a child. Because of the remoteness of his birthplace, his family crafted homemade toys, instilling a DIY sensibility in him early on.
Foytik began his leatherworking career making sheaths for his own artisan knives. He soon started creating belts and wallets, as well. In 2012, Foytik moved to the United States and settled briefly in Rappahannock County. He and his wife wanted to buy a home and came across a list of the “10 happiest cities to raise a family.” Charlottesville was on the list.
Foytik and his wife opened the brick-and-mortar Foytik Leather shop in 2015. By then, he had expanded his product line, and today it includes dog collars (his most popular item), leashes, bags, camera straps, passport covers, smartphone covers, lanyards, and journals. He purchases most of his raw leather in half-hides from an Amish company in Ohio. Once in-house, Foytik stains, stamps, and finishes the leather, assembling his products and sending them to customers across the country.
Foytik doesn’t blame COVID entirely for his storefront closure. He says he may have grown too fast pre-pandemic, adding too many employees and sacrificing efficiency. Plus, he never saw the foot traffic he’d hoped for, and “the design of the product wasn’t really fit for Charlottesville clientele,” he says.
With the shop closed for the time being, Foytik is focused on his online Etsy store. Most of his customers these days live outside Charlottesville. Foytik says he rarely works on commission due to the long lead times but is constantly looking for new items to add to his line, and designs every product himself.
“I like the newer stuff better than the old, but it is not always that people agree,” Foytik says. “When I create something one-of-a-kind, I get into the groove and get inspired.”
Foytik has also reworked his production approach and employs only two to three people at a time, depending on demand. He’s planning several pop-ups this summer and hopes to introduce a high-end product line. Perhaps most importantly, he’d like to reintroduce his passion to locals.
“If you think about it, there is no synthetic material that could completely replace leather,” Foytik says. “It is a perfect product.”
Daniel Foytik loves leather: ““the smell, the touch, the pliability and durability,” he says.