Chuck Pinnell found his calling right out of high school, when his love of art and crafting drew him to leather as a medium. After learning the trade in a harness shop in Colonial Williamsburg during the Bicentennial, he later moved to Middleburg to take over a tack repair business, mending saddles and other pieces for horse riders.
Pinnell faced a steep learning curve. Until then, he’d only joined pieces by hand. “They gave me a huge pile of horse blankets to repair and said, ‘Here is the sewing machine, and by the way it’s broken so you’ll have to fix it first,’ so I had to jump in the deep end,” recalls Pinnell, chuckling.
The tack shop’s client base was a boon for business, and Pinnell quickly found his footing, crafting pairs of chaps and half-chaps by the hundreds. Then, in the ’90s, ready-made versions changed the market. “I diversified into wallets and belts and other things,” he says, “and hired people to design and fabricate metal work as well.” After a stint in downtown Charlottesville in a space next to the C&O Restaurant, Pinnell and his wife Ginny moved the business out to quiet, pastoral western Albemarle.
“The shop was originally the Mechums River railroad depot used during the Civil War,” says Pinnell, “which was torn down in the 1930s and rebuilt out here as a peach packing facility.” Functioning as both home and workplace, the building features a beamed-ceiling showroom and a vast workshop filled with cutting tables, machines, tools, and the warm smell of leather. “We work with American alligator, lizard, snake skins, and of course cowhide,” says Pinnell. “We source from Italy, Germany, France—really, pulling resources from around the world.”
There’s no sign outside and Pinnell doesn’t advertise, but his work volume remains consistently high and current orders have a three-to-four-month lead time. He also repairs and restores leather goods. “I’ve got two guys who work here with me and two others who do the buckles and engraving work from home, and my wife does the books and the displays,” he says. Pinnell has a small studio where he photographs every project and files the images in thick binders for customers to browse for inspiration.
Each piece in the showroom invites customers to run their fingers over the supple leather, intricate patterns, and precise stitching. “Every project is unique,” says Pinnell, and his personal style is evident on the work bags, purses, belts, gun holsters, chaps, and watch bands that festoon the place. “Nowadays because of COVID-19, people are at home doing needlepoint and we are making a tremendous number of needlepoint bags and belts,” he says. “They send in their projects from around the country and we turn them into usable items.”
Pinnell’s projects take time and close attention—an ammunition bag might require 30 hours to complete, a pair of custom half-chaps with a cut-flower design and a column of fringe perhaps 40 hours. His prices reflect that labor, but customers keep returning for the care and quality of his craftsmanship. “I’d like to downsize but it’s not working,” he says with a grin.