Why We Started Making Leather Floor Protectors from Our Scrap
If you’ve followed StrapGraphics for any length of time, you know we’re obsessed with the details of our leather. For nearly twenty years, we’ve been sourcing high end hides to build custom guitar straps that can handle the weight of a heavy Gibson and the sweat of a long setlist. But there has always been one part of the business that bugged me: the scrap bin.
When you’re precision cutting premium leather straps, you naturally end up with leftover pieces. These aren't low quality bits; they are the exact same vegetable tanned leather we use for our $100 straps, just in shapes that don’t fit a guitar. For a while, we did what most shops do and donated them to local groups or the Boy Scouts. It felt good to see the leather get used, but as we grew, our "scrap" pile started growing faster than people could take it.
I hated the idea of this beautiful, USA sourced material going to waste. That’s why we officially launched leatherfloorprotectors.com. We realized that the same durability that makes leather perfect for a guitar player makes it the absolute best material for protecting a hardwood floor.
The Problem with Cheap Felt
Most of us have gone to the hardware store and bought those cheap packs of felt circles. You stick them on your dining chairs, and for a week, things are fine. Then they flatten out. The adhesive fails and leaves a sticky mess on your floor. Even worse, felt acts like a magnet for pet hair and tiny bits of sand. Eventually, that felt pad turns into a piece of sandpaper that actually scratches the floor you were trying to save.
Leather is different. It’s an organic material that was designed by nature to be tough. It doesn't compress or crumble over time. It has a natural "glide" to it, so your chairs slide smoothly without that annoying stutter you get with rubber or plastic.
Bringing Sustainability to Sherwood
We’re running both companies right out of our shop in Sherwood, Oregon. By using our existing industrial die cutting presses and the same high volume adhesive systems we use for our straps, we’ve created a way to make sure almost nothing goes to waste.
It’s a circular way of doing business. The leather that starts its life as part of a custom gear setup for a musician might end its journey under a heavy oak table or a set of studio monitors.
More Than Just Chair Pads
Since we started cutting these, we’ve seen people use them for way more than just furniture floor protectors. Because we offer different shapes like our small round pads and the specialized "pill" shapes, our customers are using them under audio equipment to damp vibrations, under heavy ceramic plant pots to prevent water rings, and even behind heavy mirrors to keep the frames from scuffing the paint on the walls.
What’s Next
We’re took this new venture to the International Surface Event (TISE) in early 2026 to show the flooring industry that the best solution isn't some new synthetic plastic, but a material we've been using for centuries.
At the end of the day, we are still a small team of makers. Whether we’re printing your band’s logo on a new strap or cutting a set of floor savers, we’re doing it with the same commitment to quality.
If you want to see what we’re doing with our leather leftovers or you’re just tired of those cheap felt pads failing you, head over to leatherfloorprotectors.com and check out the full lineup. Your floors will definitely notice the difference.