About Us

About Bret Collier

Owner & Founder of Collier Custom Leatherwork

I started dabbling with leather work when I was in my teens growing up in Wichita Falls, Texas. My Dad had been given a leathercraft set and let my brothers and me hammer and bang away to our content. Several years later, this fascination with leather work turned into a career when I was offered a job at a small saddle shop in Alpine, Texas where I was attending college. Upon graduation, the shop owner Gary Dunshee offered to let me buy into the business, an offer which I gratefully accepted. It was at that time that a tall, gorgeous redhead from El Paso started working with us and it didn’t take long before I was smitten. We were married soon after and raised two awesome kids there in Alpine while I continued to hammer and bang on leather at Big Bend Saddlery.

It was there in the Davis Mountains of west Texas that I learned about ranching, ranch cowboys and what it took to carve out a living in this rugged and remote land. Even though I had grown up around Rodeos and rode bulls in Junior Rodeos all the way up to College Rodeos, I was fascinated with ranch work and discovered the additional demands required of saddles, tack and cowboy gear in general.

Eventually, both children moved away for college, careers and families of their own. They all settled in the Oklahoma City area. I soon felt like the Lord wanted us there also so after a period of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by my bride, we moved into a house located northwest of Edmond, Oklahoma (close to the kids and now grand kids, but not too close).

So now, over 40 years later, I continue to hammer and bang away on leather in my shop at home. I now divide my time between leather work, Grandpa duties, serving at my church, and a few little cooking gigs.

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Working at my bench in the mid 1980’s. I still use most of the hand tools pictured, many of which were made around 1900.

I am in the foreground sewing a saddle skirt on a Union Lockstitch Harness machine while my fellow employees work on saddle repairs. This was also in the early 1980’s.

Trying to get my team lined out in the 96 section Morison pasture of the Figure 2 Ranch, Salt Flat Texas, 1991

Hand-sewing a swell cover for a saddle while listening to Dutch Acton tell one of his wild stories. This was taken in the early 1980’s

1968 Wichita Falls, Texas Rodeo — Bull riding action from around 1978 at my hometown rodeo. I recognize many of my friends who are watching from the fence top.