I have wanted to visit this place for sometime now but never
seem to make it there. Perhaps it was the distance; it is about an hour away
from where I am. It did not help when one of a member of a forum came over and
showed me one of their products. The place I am talking about is the strap
maker Cheergiant located in the city of Taoyuan, Taiwan (where the
international airport is located).
Cheergiant is a family-run business and the person 'heading'
it seems to be Mr. George Lan. I met him today and he is pretty cool, old
school but cool. They are into leather products, as you can see from the shop.
It is only natural that they venture into strap making. The leather that they
use is pretty limited, mostly crocodile/ alligator and calf leather. You would
not find exotic leathers like stingray, vintage ammo, Swiss Ammo, painted
leather etc. They do have crazy horse, shark and even Horoween (limited amount
and colour, black and maroon). I am considering having one strap made for the
Tudor Submariner (if I get it).
I like the place and the people there. They are very open
about their stuff and they have been doing this for over 27 years. The place is
also very rustic, typical of old business in Taiwan.
Some of their products.
This leather piece will end up as a laptop cover. The
artisan is working on the leather to the picture given.
A phone pouch. Lots of love went into making these.
George’s working table. You can see that I have blanked out
the receipts and documentation. The interesting thing is that they get people
sending them leather (like vintage ammo pouches) to have straps made. I was
fortunate to get to see an actual vintage ammo pouch that they just got and was
going to cut into straps. This is a first for me. How cool is that.
Some of the straps you see on the table are sample straps provided by their customer asking George to replicate them using the provided raw leather.
The display cabinet showing their straps and other leather products.
And this is the reason why I went there, to check out the
straps for the Bell & Ross. I also checked out their range of Panerai
straps. I have to stop buying ......
I will certainly go back for another visit, and this time I
will bring a better camera.
Their website (told you they were old school):
