The Sleek Nomad

... Description Options Product Video Our Materials Personalization The Sleek Nomad A mindful companion for your unique journey Story The Sleek Nomad is rooted in the contemplative practices of Buddhism and the resilient lifestyle of the nomadic Mongolian tribes. At its heart, this bag is more than leather and stitching — it is a reminder that your path is both unknown and uniquely yours. From Buddhist tradition comes the practice of observing without attachment — cultivating calm, clarity, and balance in a turbulent world. From the Mongolian steppe comes the strength and self-sufficiency of tribes who moved with the seasons, unbound by permanent place, guided by instinct and resilience. The intention of this bag is simple: to remind you that, like the nomads before you, you carry within yourself the strength, truth, and grace to meet the unexpected. If you ever doubt that, just look at the symbol on the front. Crafted in the High Desert Each Sleek Nomad is handmade to order in our New Mexico workshop, located in a small town set at 6,700 feet in the high mountain desert. Every cut, stitch, and edge finish is done by hand, combining time-honored craftsmanship with rugged, enduring design. Dimensions Body: 6-3/4" W x 9-1/2" H Designed to hold a Large Moleskine Cahier or our 5.5" x 8.5" Soul Size journals with ease plus other accessories Slim profile and full width front pocket for quick access. Shoulder Strap Fully removable and infinitely adjustable Length: approx. 31–54 inches Drop: 13–26 inches Construction: Hand-cut from two laminated pieces of Italian leather, 60" long, cut to 3/4" wide Hardware: Solid brass swivel clip (lever style) for strength and fluid movement Leather Options All Sleek Nomad bags are crafted from chrome/oil-tanned full-grain Italian leather sourced from a 5th-generation tannery in the Italian Alps. This process makes the leather soft and supple — not stiff like vegetable-tanned belt leathers — yet incredibly tough and durable. Rustic Brown – Cognac-toned with a slight pebble grain, luxuriously soft temper, and built to withstand years of use Rustic Dark Brown – A dark chocolate color with the same soft temper and pebble grain as Rustic Brown, equally rugged and enduring Black – Deep, smooth black with the same 1.8mm thickness as our Rustic leathers Patch Option Personalize your Sleek Nomad with a front patch, stamped with a symbol of your choice. It’s a subtle but powerful way to carry meaning on your daily journey. Construction This bag uses only three templates — main body, front pocket, and flap edging — to maintain clean, minimal lines. To strengthen every edge, we employ our proprietary “1-1/2 2XX” skive, roll, and double-stitch process on the pocket edges and a dedicated edging piece on the flap. Sewn entirely on our lighter-weight Seiko machine for a refined, elegant look. Hardware Solid Brass in Antique Brass (shown) or Nickel Low-lead, CA Prop 65–compliant hardware Stronger, more durable, and higher quality than standard fittings Why You’ll Love It The Sleek Nomad isn’t just a bag — it’s a philosophy stitched into leather. A reminder that detachment brings peace, movement builds resilience, and your journey is always enough. see the Options Tab for more details. When ordering you can choose: MAIN BODY COLOR: 3 leather colors Choose MAIN BODY Leather Color (shown as Sailboat and Flight Jacket in the photos) HARDWARE: Solid Brass in 2 finishes, Antique Brass & Nickel Matte see the Materials Tab for more info on our leather and hardware The video below tells more about the product. Currently there are no contrasting leather colors available. The available colors are Rustic Brown, Rustic Dark Brown and Black. While we are your Makers and you know exactly where your leather goods come from, it’s also important to know the source of the materials we use in making them for you. If you would like more info about our products and sources then let’s connect to discuss. Italian Leather: Our Primary Ingredient We are soft leather experts and have developed proprietary techniques for working with softer Chrome tanned Italian leathers.  Unlike the stiffer, belt like,  Vegetable tanned leathers, our leathers are soft right out of the box. Like the blue jeans you wear that only get softer and more comfortable with age, our leathers will immediately conform to your lifestyle and develop a great patina over time, making your life’s adventures more memorable and meaningful. Unbranded English Cow –Chrome/Oil tanned - Full Grain – Struck thru (dyed all the way thru the hide) Tanned in Italy – Unavailable anywhere else in the world.We worked with a 6th Generation tannery in Italy for 2 years to develop our proprietary leather. View our Processes and Proprietary soft leather-working techniques Hand-torn European Fine Art & Writing papers We offer you a choice of 3 European, hand-torn papers: Arches Text Wove, Frankfurt White, and Frankfurt Creme. Whether you write, draw or do both... using anything from a fountain pen to watercolor brushes, you will have the perfect paper. Our Standard paper is Arches Text Wove. The Frankfurt papers are our premium papers and while made more for fountain pens, work very well for water coloring too. Our papers are all 120gsm in weight which give them the body you will love. They will not feather or bleed with a fountain pen and are acid free. You can also watercolor on our papers. They take light and heavy washes well and will dry completely flat. And because you can write on both sides with any pen or pencil, it's like having twice the amount of usable pages you would have in a book with thinner paper. We also hand tear all of our papers from larger parent sheets to give you the rough, authentic and artisanal look and feel. Solid Brass Hardware Our hardware is all low lead solid brass Low Lead means harder and stronger hardware. Unlike much less expensive Zinc, Solid brass is not only strong and patinas well but the low lead content complies with California safety standards. We have 2 finishes, Antique Brass and Nickel Matte and because we believe in building things the way you want them, we offer you the choice of hardware finish on all of our products. If you don’t see that choice then just ask us. We want your tools in life to match your individuality without compromise and inspire your life’s adventures. Threads and Cords All kinds and all colors Waxed Linen, Polyester and Nylon thread and cords are used to hand-sew our permanently bound journals and for creating the Solomon’s Knot on our Modular Journals. We have all kinds of proprietary techniques for making our journals and you can learn them all with our DIY kits. Ancient and Hand-carved Beads The beads we use are anything but common. Some of our beads are over 300 years old. Others are individually hand carved. Some are and rustic and tribal in nature while others are more elegant. We use ancient African trade beads, Jade, Lapis, unpolished Tiger Eye, Jasper, Opal, solid bronze and Sterling Silver and are always adding to and changing out line. See our Machine Demos Personalize Any Item If there’s one thing that really gets us off it’s making your item look totally cool and unique. And, when it comes to Personalizing your item, nothing gets more personal and unique. That’s why we offer so much more than just initials, a name or a short line of text. While it’s impossible to list all the creative and different ways we can personalize your book, bag or cover, we tried grouping them into the categories below. Any and all of these can be combined so if you need something special then contact us. Also, keep in mind that while we usually have standard placement for personalization, we can put it just about anywhere on your item at your request. There is no additional charge for that but you do need to tell us. See our Personalization Gallery for Ideas 3 Initial, Full or Multi-line Personalization included in the ordering options for most journals and covers 3 Initial Personalization... the simplest and most popular choice. If you get a cover or a journal with 3 Initial Personalization, at our discretion we will usually include a matching leather bookmark and will personalize it with the same 3 initials. Full or Multi-line Personalization includes up to 15 spaces, counting the spaces in between the words or name. But just in case you are really close, we let you fudge 20% more by letting you add up to 18 spaces. When entering your desired pesonalization please remember that what you enter is CaSE sEnseTIve. We can put more letters on a single line but if it goes over the space limit then it will need to be entered as an additional line and will be charged accordingly. Symbols We have a Unique & Growing collection of Symbols which we can put on your item. To see the full collection just click on the BUTTON below. When ordering a Symbol we give you the choice of adding up to 3 initials directly below it. Symbols can also be combined with a Patch but must be ordered separately. See Symbols Collection Patches Leather Patches are one of the most Unique forms of personalization we know of and nobody that we know of does it. This is where we create a leather patch, put whatever you want on it… a Symbol, up to 3 full lines of type…. basically, whatever you would like, and sew the patch onto your item. Because setup on these can take a long time, we typically make at least 2 just in case we make a mistake. But we usually don’t so in that case we will either just give you the second one or sew it onto your bookmark (if it's included) and if it fits. Combinations & Variations: We can combine patches, Symbols, Single or Multi-line Personalization in whatever way/s you would like. There are near unlimited variations and we do our best to make your patch look as cool as possible. But if you have certain placement needs or desires then you can just let us know. See our Personalization Gallery for Ideas Custom Logos and Graphics If you have a logo or graphic you would like debossed into your item or on a patch then we can do that too. The max size is 5x2 inches. We send out to have a special metal die made which can be used over and over again. Custom Metal Casting beads, logos, findings and more... We have partnered with G&S Jewelry Mfg. in Albuquerque to vacuum cast your wildest dreams in just about any metal you would like. We can make just 1 or many pieces for you. This is great if you want to create a journal and use your own custom bead design for your own Unique series of modular journals. It can be a corporate logo or a family crest, a meaningful symbol between you and your loved one... almost anything you would like. Creativity is your only limit. So let your imagination run wild and contact us with your idea. You can watch our on location video to learn more and give you an introduction to the process. Just click the button below. Watch our Custom Casting Video