This is a very nice leather shop , nice quality products. Family owned very nice people! Stop by just to look around worth the stop.
Unique leather shop
Jodie A
FEATURES
626 Richards Street
Thermopolis, WY 82443
Be sure to stop by Merlin’s Hide Out right here in Thermopolis!
Ever since he was in 4-H and FFA, Merlin Heinz has had a passion for sewing leather. In 1997, he started learning how to tan hair on hides. His first project took place in the spare bedroom when he decided, in the middle of a Wyoming winter, to tan a couple of beaver hides to make a new pair of gators for himself. As it often happens, “a couple” beaver hides turned into “many”. The following winter when a good friend asked him to tan a buffalo hide, his wife Barb put her foot down and said not in the spare bedroom!
Their first tannery building consisted of a 9’ X 15’ log shed that he could work in during the cold Wyoming winters. Never being able to locate him at supper time, the building got named Merlin’s Hide Out and the name stuck! Once he started tanning buffalo hides, he knew what his life passion was.
In the very beginning, Barb explains, their business plan was to be a tannery. They were going to tan buffalo hides for retail and fill in with tanning for others. Within 3 months of opening, they were turning away work. That was over 15 years ago.
When Merlin had spare time, you could find him creating some sort of product for himself (hats, mittens, gators etc.). When customers came to pick up their hides, they would see what Merlin had created for himself and ask if he would create a hat or mittens for them out of the hide he had just tanned.
And thus, the production department was born. Barb and Merlin quickly expanded the product line of the Merlin’s Hide Out brand and opened a small retail space next to the tannery.
Today, the Merlin’s Hide Out brand product has shipped all over the world. Their buffalo fur coat remains their signature product and has even made it to Hollywood! Kurt Russel wore the buffalo coat when he starred in the 2015 movie, The Hateful 8, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
The couple continue to do all the production in house and every step of the detail is still either overseen or handcrafted by Merlin.
