Other Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing (U.S.) — NAICS 3169

A short rollup primer for a four-digit NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) industry group that contains exactly one child industry. Because the group and its one child are effectively the same thing, this page summarizes the level and points you to the full detail in the child primer. Figures are reported facts with citations; forward-looking statements are labeled as judgments.

1. Overview

NAICS 3169 covers U.S. factories that make finished leather goods other than shoes and clothing — luggage, handbags and wallets, saddlery and harness, dog collars, industrial and novelty leather items — plus the same products made from leather substitutes such as fabric or plastic.[1] It is a small, mature, highly fragmented light-manufacturing industry of roughly 630 plants and about 11,300 workers producing around $2.0 billion of goods a year.[2][3] This level has its own long-run federal employment series, and it shows the shape of the story: NAICS 3169 employed 40,900 people in 1987 versus 12,400 in 2024, a decline of nearly 70% as production moved offshore.[4]

The one fact an investor needs up front: the U.S. barely manufactures the leather goods Americans buy. Almost all handbags and luggage sold here are imported, and even the famous "American" brands stitch their products in Asia.[5][6] So this code captures only a thin slice of leather-goods economic activity — the brand, wholesale, and retail value sits in other codes and offshore factories.

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

A four-digit NAICS industry group sits one step above the detailed leaf codes. This one contains a single child industry, which in turn contains a single national industry:

• 31699 — Other Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing (its only child), which is itself just 316990 (the six-digit national industry).

Because the chain from four digits down to six is one-to-one, NAICS 3169, 31699, and 316990 are effectively the same thing — the same establishments, employment, shipments, and firms, with no sibling category to blend in. (Through NAICS 2012 this activity was split across four codes — luggage, women's handbags, personal leather goods, and "all other" — which NAICS 2017 collapsed into today's single code, so pre-2017 series won't line up one-to-one.[1])

For everything below at full length — scope details, the company roster, the manufacturing-versus-brand split, and the sources behind every figure — read the child primer, NAICS 31699. The rest of this page is a summary.

3. How big it is (this level's rollup figures)

U.S. federal statistics for NAICS 3169 (identical to its one child):

The HHI (a standard 0–10,000 market-concentration score; U.S. antitrust regulators treat anything under 1,500 as "unconcentrated") is just 249.8 — a very fragmented industry with no dominant firm.[3] Under the SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration) size standard of 500 employees, virtually every U.S. firm here is a small business.[7] Note that the employment series and the establishment/payroll counts come from different federal programs and are not perfectly comparable — the 12,400 for 2024 and the 11,305 for 2023 are close but not the same measure.[2][4]

Undercount caveat — two ways these numbers understate the real footprint:

1. Federal figures capture only U.S. factory activity, which is the small part. Providers that scope "leather goods and luggage" more broadly (design, importing, distribution) put the market nearer $3.6 billion; the economic weight of American leather goods lives in imports and brands, not domestic plants.[5]
2. A tail of tiny makers is likely missed. County Business Patterns counts employer establishments and does not fully capture one-person artisan and custom leatherworkers (holster makers, wallet crafters, Etsy-scale sellers) who file as nonemployer businesses. Our source data carries no nonemployer count for this code, so we cannot size that tail here — but it exists and is not in the 633 / 11,305 figures.[2]

4. The investable universe (where value concentrates)

Because the level equals its one child, value concentrates exactly as it does in 31699: there is no meaningful publicly traded pure-play U.S. leather-goods manufacturer. Public-market investors instead own the brand owners — Tapestry (NYSE: TPR; Coach, Kate Spade; $7.01 billion FY2025 revenue at a 75.4% gross margin), Capri Holdings (NYSE: CPRI; Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo; ~$4.4 billion revenue against a $1.18 billion loss), Steven Madden (Nasdaq: SHOO; handbags passed $300 million in 2024), Fossil (Nasdaq: FOSL), Vera Bradley (Nasdaq: VRA; closed its Indiana factory in 2015 and now imports), Tandy Leather (Nasdaq: TLF; a leathercraft retailer and distributor rather than a manufacturer), and luggage leader Samsonite (HKEX: 1910, pursuing a U.S. listing) — marketing-and-retail businesses that source production abroad.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The single-name spread inside that list is wide: the same category supports Tapestry's expanding margins and Capri's billion-dollar loss, so "leather goods" is not one trade. A niche adjacency is Cadre Holdings (NYSE: CDRE), owner of duty-gear maker Safariland, whose holsters and belts include leather.

The actual domestic makers are small, private craft and niche shops (equestrian tack, defense gear, heritage "Made in USA" brands, contract cut-and-sew factories) — the realm of small-business ownership and lower-middle-market private equity.[15][16] See 31699 for the full company table.

5. How the money works

A labor-intensive, low-capital cut-and-sew craft business: buy hides or finished leather (or fabric/plastic substitutes) and hardware, and pay skilled workers to cut and stitch goods worth more than the parts. Two models share the code — contract/private-label shops that live on labor productivity, capacity utilization, and leather cut-yield, and own-brand makers that live on brand and pricing power (a "Made in USA," heirloom, or bespoke positioning covering higher domestic labor cost).[full detail in 31699]

The defining feature of the level is the split between healthy brand economics at the label layer and hollowed-out domestic manufacturing. Tapestry earned a 75.4% gross margin in FY2025 while spending $744.5 million on marketing; customers pay for the name, not the stitching.[8] The gap runs upstream too: the Leather & Hide Council of America notes that 95% of U.S. leather-and-hide output is exported, so the American position in this supply chain is raw material out and finished goods in.[17]

6. What drives demand

Consumer discretionary spending and the fashion/"handbag heat" cycle; travel (luggage is the single largest product segment, roughly 43% of the broader category);[5] the global luxury cycle and the Chinese consumer; steadier niches in equestrian, ranch/Western, and pet goods where domestic makers hold real share;[15] "Made in USA" and heritage/craft interest;[18] and defense procurement of holsters, slings, and gear under domestic-preference rules.[19] Material substitution toward synthetic and "vegan" leathers cuts both ways rather than acting as a pure threat — it can displace demand for natural leather while creating product lines that still sit inside this code; sustainability claims are contested, so diligence the actual chemistry rather than the label.

7. Regulation

Trade and tariffs are the dominant force. Leather goods enter under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) Chapter 42; 2025 "reciprocal" tariffs on top of Section 301 duties sharply raised import costs and accelerated sourcing shifts from China toward Vietnam, Cambodia, and India — China's leather-goods shipments to the U.S. fell roughly a third in a year, ceding the top-supplier spot to Cambodia.[6][20] The Yale Budget Lab estimated tariff-driven price increases of about 10–20% for goods like handbags and gloves.[21] Other layers: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Leather Guides, which require truthful disclosure of composition and origin;[22] the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) on lead and phthalates;[23] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Leather Tanning and Finishing Effluent Guidelines, which fall mainly upstream on tanneries;[24] the Berry Amendment, which requires the Department of Defense to buy domestically made leather goods, protecting a niche;[19] and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) permitting for exotic skins. Border enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) applies to imports.[6]

8. Consolidation

A split screen, identical to 31699. At the manufacturing level the domestic base is fragmented (CR4 just 25.5%, HHI 249.8) and structurally shrinking.[3] At the brand level, roll-ups have consolidated aggressively — Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman), Capri (Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo; Versace since sold to Prada), and Samsonite (Tumi, American Tourister, Hartmann).[8][9][10][14] Tapestry's ~$8.5 billion bid for Capri was blocked and abandoned, a reminder that brand roll-ups don't guarantee success.[9] Consolidation at the label layer does not translate into pricing power over supply: Vera Bradley identifies widely available contract manufacturing capacity as an entry barrier that is low, which is precisely why domestic plants have no shelter.[25] For a domestic maker, the real competitor is not another U.S. plant — it's an import.

9. Risks

Structural import competition (90%+ of the category is imported);[5][6] two-sided tariff whiplash (tariffs raise rivals' import costs but also a domestic assembler's own imported inputs and retail prices — Vera Bradley reported that incremental duty costs reduced recent gross margin);[6][21][26] leather-price volatility and a shrinking U.S. tanning base;[27] scarce, aging skilled labor;[18] consumer cyclicality and fashion risk;[5] substitution toward synthetic/"vegan" leathers;[27] thin capitalization and no public access for most domestic firms;[3] and customer concentration for contract shops.

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Public routes mean buying brand and retail economics, not domestic manufacturing — TPR, CPRI, SHOO, FOSL, VRA, TLF, and (if its U.S. dual listing completes) Samsonite as the largest luggage vehicle; global luxury houses hold the deepest category profit pools.[14] Private routes are how you own the actual domestic industry: heritage DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands, equestrian and industrial/safety tack makers, Berry-Amendment defense suppliers, and contract cut-and-sew shops — search-fund and lower-middle-market scale, illiquid but sitting in the niches imports don't reach.[15][16][18] Base-case judgment: domestic manufacturing stays small and fragmented, the brand layer stays where the public-market money is, and the tariff trajectory — not any revival of U.S. factories — is the story that moves these numbers in the next few years.[6][21]

For the full treatment of any section above, see the child primer, NAICS 31699.

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Sources

1. NAICS Association. "NAICS Code 316990 — Other Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing (2022)." https://www.naics.com/naics-code-description/?v=2022&code=316990
2. U.S. Census Bureau. "County Business Patterns, 2023 (NAICS 316990: establishments, employment, payroll)." https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
3. U.S. Census Bureau. "2022 Economic Census — Concentration and receipts (NAICS 316990: firms, receipts, CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50, HHI)." https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
4. Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRED. "NAICS 3169 Employment (1987–2024)." https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/IPUEN3169W200000000.txt
5. IBISWorld. "Leather Goods & Luggage Manufacturing in the US — Industry Analysis, 2025." https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/leather-goods-luggage-manufacturing/374/
6. CNBC. "Inside the leather trade war hitting handbags, boots and couches," 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/25/leather-prices-tariffs-trump-boots-handbags-furniture-twisted-x.html
7. U.S. Small Business Administration. "Table of Size Standards (2023)." https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
8. Tapestry, Inc. "Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended June 28, 2025." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1116132/000111613225000019/tpr-20250628.htm
9. Fashion Dive. "Capri continues to struggle after Tapestry lifeline disappears," 2025. https://www.fashiondive.com/news/capri-q3-fiscal-2025-revenue-drops-versace-kors-choo/739320/
10. Fortune. "Behind luxury brands Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo lurks a holding company with millions in losses," 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/01/02/michael-kors-jimmy-choo-versace-capri-losses-john-idol/
11. GlobeNewswire. "Steve Madden Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results," 2025. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/02/26/3032739/0/en/Steve-Madden-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2024-Results.html
12. GlobeNewswire. "Vera Bradley Announces Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Results," 2024. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/12/11/2995337/17650/en/Vera-Bradley-Announces-Third-Quarter-Fiscal-Year-2025-Results.html
13. Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. "Form 10-K, 2025." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/909724/000114036126006550/ef20060825_10k.htm
14. U.S. News / Reuters. "Hong Kong-Traded Samsonite Targets Dual Listing in US," 2026. https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2026-02-13/hong-kong-listed-samsonite-targets-u-s-dual-listing
15. Weaver Equine (Weaver Leather). Company site, 2025. https://www.weaverequine.com/
16. Circle Y. "About Circle Y." https://circley.com/about
17. Leather & Hide Council of America. https://usleather.org/
18. IndustrySelect. "U.S. Leather Manufacturing Industry: Key Facts." https://www.industryselect.com/blog/us-leather-manufacturing-industry-key-facts
19. Wikipedia. "Berry Amendment," 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Amendment
20. Eightx. "US Leather Goods Imports by Origin (HS 4202)," 2026. https://eightx.co/blog/leather-goods-import-origins
21. CNBC. "20 items and goods most exposed to price shocks from Trump tariffs" (citing the Yale Budget Lab), 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/04/trump-tariffs-20-items-and-goods-most-exposed-to-price-shocks.html
22. Federal Trade Commission. "Leather Guides." https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/leather-guides
23. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. "Soft Infant and Toddler Carriers — FAQ." https://www.cpsc.gov/FAQ/Soft-Infant-and-Toddler-Carriers
24. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Leather Tanning and Finishing Effluent Guidelines." https://www.epa.gov/eg/leather-tanning-and-finishing-effluent-guidelines
25. Vera Bradley, Inc. "Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1495320/000162828026021640/vra-20260131.htm
26. Vera Bradley, Inc. "Announces Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results." https://investors.verabradley.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vera-bradley-announces-fourth-quarter-fiscal-year-2026-results
27. Leather International (leathermag). "View from the US," 2024. https://www.leathermag.com/analysis/view-from-the-us-210324-11621086/