Handgun leather-- a term John Bianchi coined, by the way-- had pretty much stagnated in the 1950s and holsters were little more than simple pouches to keep guns from falling onto the ground. Often, they didn't even do that simple chore very well.
The early companies were run by the sons and grandsons of the founders and names like Bucheimer, Clark and S.D. Myers were bandied about by cops and citizens who carried concealed. Still, the designs were often simple, almost crude by some standards, and a gun and holster-crazy young man named Bianchi thought he could do better. He felt the market was clamoring for some imaginative new products. He was right.
The old photo of John, 14, shows him wearing the first holster he ever made. He lived near a glove factory and haunted the scrap heaps for bits of leather that he turned into holsters, wallets, belts and "cowboy stuff," as he called it. He was bitten by the bug and a path through history was set in concrete.
Roy Huntington "The Origin Of "Handgun Leather" - Brief Article". American Handgunner. FindArticles.com. 18 Aug, 2009. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_143_23/ai_56221603/
