Bonded leather, a niche corner of the leather upholstery industry, is maintaining its fair share of the market thanks in large part to Alan Naness, founder and president of Seattle-based Design Resources, Inc.

With more than forty years in the textile industry, Naness capitalized on the demand for leather that he saw evident in the U.S. beginning in the 1980’s.

“I had friends in Italy, so I went there and formed a partnership with an Italian tannery to bring bonded leather to the U.S. market.”

Naness’ intent was not to compete with already well-established leather manufacturers in the U.S. He set out to bring to the U.S. what many American’s look for in a high-end industry such as leather upholstery: a less expensive alternative.

According to Naness, leather was less than one-percent of the upholstered furniture market in the U.S. during the 80’s. In the 90’s, it made up 30-percent and has continued to grow exponentially.

“The U.S furniture industry loves to find a method to knock off and make at a cheaper price,” said Naness, in an exclusive interview with F&FI at Showtime. “We are driven to drive the price down in our industry.”

Read the entire story in our spring issue here