How Portland Leather bet on Facebook for its rapid retail growth
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The flagship store on NW 23rd is Portland Leather's blueprint for national expansion. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
Portland Leather Goods aims to open 10 additional stores within the next year, a rapid expansion fueled not by TikTok virality or wholesale deals, but by an older-school social media platform that's often overlooked by today's trendsetters.
The big picture: The Portland-based company, which produces handcrafted leather handbags and accessories, has leaned into Facebook Groups to build a fiercely loyal community of fans that reliably show up in-person for store openings nationwide.
- "People are lining up at like 3am," Scarlett Stack, Portland Leather's director of social media, told Axios. "They're meeting people for the very first time that they've talked to online for two and a half years."
Facebook isn't necessarily cool anymore, but while other brands chase likes and views on other sites, Portland Leather found what the platform is still good for: accessing a community that is as equally enthused about totes, crossbody bags, wallets and charms as it is.
Catch up quick: It all started in 2020, when Stack noticed a lengthy comment thread taking place on a Portland Leather ad on Facebook. The comment section quickly became a makeshift message board for those looking to buy, sell and trade Portland Leather products.
- Soon, customers started their own Facebook group dedicated to the brand. Stack decided to join anonymously at first to observe the conversation but quickly realized she may have stumbled onto a bigger opportunity.
- So in 2022, Portland Leather launched its own group, and in the years since has grown membership to more than 210,000.
- "We were always looking for a digital space for people of all different backgrounds," she said.
State of play: The group has given the company a built-in audience for product drops, giveaways and loyalty perks, Stack said. It also has eliminated a lot of the guesswork when it comes to choosing where to set up a new store, expanding into markets where it already knows customers are engaged and ready to show up.
Zoom out: Portland Leather's success as a $200 million business is a far cry from where CEO Curtis Matsko started in 2015 — in his Sellwood garage, cutting upholstery leather into handmade journals he sold at local art festivals. It has since transferred production to a manufacturing studio in León, Mexico.
- The company opened its flagship store on Northwest 23rd Avenue in 2021 after years of strong direct-to-consumer sales and quickly expanded into Washington, Ohio, Texas and Colorado.
- Now it has future locations planned for Georgia, Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, bringing its retail footprint up to nearly two dozen brick-and-mortar stores.
The bottom line: While the brand may carry Portland in its name, its customer base stretches nationwide. What remains, Stack said, is the ethos: "There's a part of Oregon craftsmanship that we've always instilled in it."