Seven new Horween buffalo colours for the Harlestone Hand Stitch

Posted by Crown Northampton on September 16, 2022

After a long, long wait for our very special buffalo delivery from Horween, it's finally arrived and it was well worth the wait!

Towards the end of 2021, amid very uncertain global movements that were causing huge problems with supply chain and many other aspects of production, we ran out of our buffalo skins that were very popular made up in our Harlestone Hand Stitch Sneaker.

The Horween company is one of our long term trusted partners and suppliers of some of the most unique leathers available on the market. Through conversations with our own Chris Woodford, our local leather suppliers, and the Horween Company, we have sourced seven new colours of Buffalo that are exclusive to Crown Northampton.

Across these colours, we have limited stock on No 8, Ink and Green. Therefore, the number of pairs we are able to make will be limited and offered on a first come, first served basis. This is because of the material stock we have on hand at our factory, how we have ordered the batches from Horween, and the quantities they were able to delivery to us.

So why is this leather so unique? Well, Horween buffalo leather is tanned in the US in a similar way to Chromexcel with a combination of both vegetable and chrome tanning. Through these processes, the buffalo is naturally shrunken down from around 30ft to 20ft when finished. This skilled process pulls the fibres together tight, making them very tough and durable. Each skin retains its own personal ruggedness which results in a pronounced grain that can vary in size across the surface. As the skins are purposely left natural straight out of the tanning drum and not embossed for a uniform finish, the true character of each skin shines through, making each pair of sneakers or shoes made from the material completely unique.

So in summary, it's individual in appearance, tanned and finished to be soft yet durable, and overall it just looks really good in our Harlestone Hand Stitch Sneaker!

Available now in sizes UK 3 -14 with a choice of Lactae Hevea soles in black, off white.

View some of the available colour combinations below and click through on the images or shop the full collection here.