I was 12, looking for a school bag that would make my days feel a little less chaotic. Nothing felt quite right. So I thought: maybe I could make my own.

I didn’t know it then, but my great-great-grandfather Vincent had started making leather shoes by hand around 1920. A hundred years later, I was figuring out backpacks. I guess some things run in the family.

At 15, I finally held my first leather backpack. The bag I’d spent so long imagining was actually there, in my hands. That’s when it all started to feel real.