Veteran Grows Leather Business after Stock Market Crash

Pat Cassier, second from the left, with his extended family. (Courtesy of Deerfield Leathers)

Patrick Cassier, 82, is a veteran of both the U.S. Army and the leather industry who turned his hobby into a leather goods business—Deerfield Leathers—in 1998. Today the company sells its belts, wallets, slippers, motorcycle apparel, gloves and other products around the country.

Cassier began his career in leather shortly after graduating from high school working for Chemtan, a manufacturer of chemicals for the leather tanning industry headquartered in Exeter.

In the 1960s he served with the U.S. 6th Special Forces as a demolition Sergeant traveling around the U.S. providing demonstrations for politicians. After leaving the military Cassier began what would become a 31-year career as a salesman for Rohm and Hass, a specialty chemical supplier for leather tanning. He traveled across the U.S. and Argentina, absorbing everything he could about leather and making leather goods. “You have to be pretty observant when you’re treating leather with chemicals because the skins all react in different ways,”
he says.

When Cassier, an avid hunter who recently published a book titled “Unorganized Territories,” retired in 1998, he began selling leather motorcycle apparel and gained a following of people who loved his products, he says. Ten years later, during the stock market crash of 2008, Deerfield Leathers became a full-fledged business. “I looked at my portfolio one day and said, ‘I think I gotta go back to work,’” Cassier says. “So, I decided to grow my own business.”

Deerfield Leathers has a small retail store in South Deerfield where it does about 5% of its business. The bulk of this business is wholesale to tradings posts and general stores across New England, and as far away as the Midwest. 

Some of Deerfield Leather’s big sellers are its lines of deer and elk skin gloves and mittens as well as its wallets. “But the number one product is our Crazy Horse wallets,” he says, “Followed by Katahdin belts.”

All of Deerfield Leathers products are made by subcontractors in the U.S. and overseas, and Cassier uses his knowledge and experience to source all the leather and organize the manufacturing. “I buy the leather, and we tell our craftsmen how we want the products made,” he says. “We always look at the leather first and the quality determines whether we’re going to buy it.”

When the pandemic hit in 2020, says Cassier, Deerfield’s sales went up by 45%. After a lull for a couple of years, he says the numbers are trending up. “It looks like we’re going to grow a little bit this year,” he says. “The belt business is booming, and the wallet business is booming.” For more information, visit deerfieldleathers.com.