PARIS — Volkan Yilmaz, better known as Tanner Leatherstein, has been appointed director of craftsmanship at British bag brand Stow London. In addition to his new role, Yilmaz joins the company as a shareholding partner, marking a strategic collaboration between the viral leather educator and the luxury handbag-maker.
Stow, founded in 2013 by Carol Lovell, has slowly built its business in premium travel goods and handbags.
Yilmaz, whose viral social media videos revolve around deconstructing leather bags to evaluate their construction and cost value, now has 2.5 million followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Eight months ago, Yilmaz set this collaboration in motion when he purchased a Stow bag for review. “I was shocked,” he said. “The brand got my attention.” He cited the use of stainless steel hardware, the packaging and overall craftsmanship as key factors that impressed him. “The design was very unique and refreshing and was not what I was expecting for three or four hundred euros.”
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The bag checked off all five of Yilmaz’s self-established quality pillars: leather, hardware, design, structure and craftsmanship. “I remember thinking to myself, this is where I want my brand to go,” he said, referencing his U.S.-based label, Pegai. Soon after he named Stow’s Curve bag “best value luxury bag of 2024.”
A chance meeting with Lovell soon after revealed that demand for the bag had skyrocketed following his video, keeping the brand’s products on preorder status ever since.
“We decided to join forces, instead of me still trying to build [my brand] for maybe a couple more years in the making. It’s just a win-win for all of us.”
Yilmaz will now oversee product development at Stow, guiding everything from material selection and design decisions to storytelling across digital platforms. He plans to continue to post monthly content showing how the bags are made. “I’ll stay consistent with my own style [to show] what we do at Stow and why we do it,” he said.
He demurs when credited with having reshaped the industry but acknowledges a growing wave of consumer knowledge.
“There was an information gap that was being exploited by some brands — it’s expensive, it’s marketing, but it’s not necessarily the greatest thing,” he said. “It’s not that I changed it, but I think it may have accelerated the pace people are realizing and being more aware and making better and conscious choices toward contemporary and newer brands that offer very comparable quality at a fraction of the cost.
“This is not a trend, it’s a shift. I don’t think it is going to go away,” he added.
Looking ahead, Yilmaz sees continued fragmentation of the leather goods market. “What I see coming in the leather market is the luxury brands shrinking in market share, and then this shrinkage will go into hundreds of smaller brands which offer very high value.”
With social media and easy tools like Shopify, a small company can easily create a global brand, he believes.
“You don’t need investment of millions, and that’s what’s happening,” he said. “Hundreds of new brands will take a piece of the pie lost by the luxury labels.”
Yilmaz will continue to develop Pegai, refocusing it as a niche “leather geek” label, while Stow will be his focus for more mainstream materials and design. “Actually, it works great for me. I want my brand to be a little bit more specialty kind of leather house. The pressure is off [my brand], so it’s a win-win for all of us.”
He will also help guide Stow’s exploration into next-gen materials, including collaborations like its previous project with Uncaged Innovations. “I am a huge supporter of an honest leather alternative for people who sincerely don’t want to use animal products,” he said, noting that he will work with plant-based alternatives and not petroleum-based plastic products. “There is a good amount of people who want and deserve an honest alternative.”
With Yilmaz now on board, Stow aims to elevate its design, materials, and transparency standards while expanding its visibility among social media-savvy luxury consumers. Stow plans to launch a new bag next month, which had already been in the pipeline, with newer products in development with Yilmaz alongside factory head Adam Bryer.
“I’m very excited about what we will do together,” Yilmaz added.
