One bench, one maker, one pair at a time
Navili Dunkite is a small leather workshop in Europe, run by a saddle maker who has been riding western for most of his life. Every pair of chaps is cut, tooled and stitched by the same hands.
We don't keep a warehouse. When you order, we choose the hide, cut your pattern and start tooling. That's why each pair takes weeks instead of days, and why it fits like it does.
The leather we use
We work with full-grain chap hides between 4 and 5 ounces: roughout for grip and wear, smooth-out oil-tan for wet weather, glove-soft chap hide for the show ring and elk for riders who want the softest leather there is. Belts and yokes are vegetable-tanned tooling leather, which is the only kind that takes a stamp cleanly.
Tooled by hand
Basketweave, floral carving and lettering are done with swivel knives and stamps, one strike at a time. You'll see small variations from pair to pair. That's how you know a person made it.