When you arrive at Tyler Carder’s workshop, you’re immediately greeted with all the charm you’d expect from a family home in small-town America. There’s chickens clucking in the backyard. Toys for kids sprinkled along the sidewalk. And a lawn mower that looks like it’s about to get started on its annual summer run on the driveway.
I step into the standalone garage and am greeted with the smell of leather, stacked floor to ceiling on almost every square inch available, and the sound of an alternative rock album he has playing in the background. Bright fluorescents illuminate the rolls of leather on the shelves, old taxidermy hanging from the walls, and tools neatly organized along the counters.
When you pick up a piece of Simpleton Good’s work, the detail is what stands out the most. While a lot of products can have great ideas and designs going into it, the details and execution are what create a polished finished product. The order of the floor plan, intentionally spaced and organized to create a clear system he has for his production gives a huge clue to just how Tyler’s mind works.
And while you might expect that meticulous focus on systems to come from someone who studied engineering or mechanics, the story of Simpleton Goods starts in a tour bus years ago.
“I was playing in a band. We were independent, just road dogs. We were touring a lot, so there was a lot of downtime, and I was writing in a journal. I thought I could make one instead of buying a new one, so I ended up making several. I had some interest from friends, so I ended up buying more leather and just started making journals as a hobby.”
Tour life came to an end for Tyler and he found himself quickly becoming not only a husband, but also an expecting father. With a lot of questions about what comes next, the requests for Tyler’s work continued to come in through his friends who knew he worked with leather.
“I just kind of figured it was a win when I'd make like, 50 bucks a week, you know. And now here I am down the road. It kind of took, I don't know, five, maybe eight years before I was like, you know, this is like, this isn't just a creative venture. I gotta treat this like a real job, a real career, a real pursuit. So I've been trying to learn how to be a real business owner since then.”
From leather bound journals to a wide catalog ranging from bags to wallets, keychains to even apparel designed with leather patches; Simpleton has grown from those first pieces sewn together on the tour bus. But that influence for music continues in his work, creating a unique look that marks the brand.
“Simpleton is looked from the outside, probably a lot more like, I don't know, like vintage Americana in a lot of ways. I have a huge appreciation for history, and really any craft. So, like I was trying to give the leather craft the respect I felt like it deserved. But then there's that other part of me that still is, like, you know, I've got tattoos and had stretched ears. People make assumptions about, maybe my beliefs or who I am based on how I look. But then this thing that I've put out into the world is a little bit different, so there's kind of been this dichotomy. So I'm trying to learn to express my full self through this venture, and trying to figure out what that looks like.”
In Simpelton’s MMXX collection, an idea spawned from the changing world during 2020, you’ll find not only colored leather accenting classic designs, but even two and three toned leather pieces. The journey from building pieces Tyler knew the market wanted to something that represented his differing areas of inspiration led to unique styles that are synonymous with Simpleton Goods. But even as the name itself leads you to believe, Tyler takes an even-keeled approach to the work itself.
“A buddy of mine was working at Blue Seven. He and I would call each other ‘simple’ and I mean, really just making fun of each other for not knowing what's going on in life. Initially, I was thinking for a much better name, but it's kind of become the perfect moniker for, you know, the simple approach to things. Simplify your life with products you can depend on.”
Simpleton Goods carries that dichotomy in its name. Both a jab, not taking yourself too seriously, but also carrying a heavy weight of a life philosophy. Talking with Tyler, you get that sense. As he stitched a card wallet in front of me, he would talk about how he hates the pains of keeping current on social media in a self-imposed jab about not posting in over a year on Instagram. And the next minute it would become a deep conversation about how people are wired through the influences of modern technology.
As he wraps up the stitching on the card wallet, Tyler recounts what his grandfather said about Simpleton Goods. “It was really cool to be able to make him some wallets before he passed away. And you know, his feedback was just, ‘These are as good as any of the other ones I bought.’ And it's like, man, that means a lot. You know because he's picky.”
With over a decade under his belt, Tyler has had ample ways to capitalize on the brand and cut corners to scale his production further, as seen in taking the time to hand-stitch the card wallet he was putting on the table. But the time spent on the details comes from a man who is as picky about the goods he puts his name behind as his grandfather was about the goods he purchased.
And in today’s world of fast fashion, changing styles and trends, and always looking at how to scale; it’s clear that we need more makers like Tyler and Simpleton Goods who are working to create a legacy not only with the goods they make, but how they make it.
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