Well, if you want to build something that'll last, you have to do it the right way.

For Dr.

Scott Hofert, that can apply to building a family, a community, or even a business.

After spending his 20s working in humanitarian aid and his 30s creating a family, he decided to spend the next part of his life following his passion for leather working.

Named after his two sons, he started ColsenKeane Leather Goods and Provisions with the same dedication and commitment, creating leather goods that can last generations.

Producer Russ Hunsinger introduces us to Dr.

Scott.

(upbeat music) - The very first thing that people are going to notice is that it smells really good in here.

- Oh, the smell.

It smells incredible.

- Then they'll see the folks over at the benches and really wonder what's going on here.

I think a lot of people don't realize that when we say everything is made here in the studio, we mean it.

- I was turning 40 and I was tired of looking at screens all day and having nothing physical to show for my work.

And so I thought, "Well, what can I play with at night when I go home?"

A lot of people work with steel or they play an instrument or they work with wood.

And so I thought, "Well, I love leather."

So I bought a fistful of tools, a hide of leather, and went to my back porch and started playing.

(upbeat jazz music) I had just started messing around with playing with leather.

Maybe a month or so later, Steve Jobs came on the scene with an iPad that millions of us purchased, shows up to my house and I Googled a case for it and they didn't exist.

So I thought, "Well, what if I go back to my trusty little leather bench and I took a piece of leather, basically it's all one piece of leather, and cut it out, folded it and stitched the sides, and put my iPad in there and thought, I wonder if other people would want this?"

And so I put it on Etsy.

That was really the impetus to our company.

I thought, "Well, what if I make other items, belts and wallets and journals and all tho kind of things?

Would people buy them?"

And they did.

You know, having something made here in the States, here in Charlotte, and having handmade by people that we train, so most of the leathersmiths that we now have that are professional and expert at what they do, they learn their trade here.

- We offer a five-week immersive workshop, so it's going to be called our internship.

Each one of the internships will be a cohort-style offering, so that means that there are three spaces available within each cohort.

The cohorts are going to allow everybody to kind of work together and feel a little bit less siloed, and that it's not super independent because they'll have the opportunity to meet new folks that are trying to learn the same thing as they are within our studio.

- I started as an intern.

I was right out of high school just wanting to look for some things to do.

The internship experience was really great.

They made it really wonderful.

They made everything just feel like family and be very open and welcoming to a new person, especially someone who was young, like me.

They allowed me to join this wonderful thing, and it led to me finally actually being able to work here.

(upbeat music) - I've always done sewing and weaving, so I want to combine those mediums.

I really wanted to understand leather and how it works and understand the different types and come up with ways that you can combine those with vintage textiles and handwoven pieces and hand-knit pieces.

I think that would be really unique and something fun.

So I've played around with some designs and I think I can apply some of the things I learned in the internship to those pieces in my own art.

- I really just love getting to give every customer something unique.

Every single bag is going to be a little bit different and develop its own character, not only when it leaves the shop, but also how it develops over time, where every person holds a bag will cause that leather to patina differently, which just gives, I don't know, a soul back to it.

(upbeat music) - The smell of that rich leather and just smelling the different nuances and hearing sounds and seeing everybody smiling and talking and it was just the energy here was upbeat.

Beautiful, beautiful space.

- At this place in my life, it's not about necessarily acquiring a bigger business or just more clients for the sake of more clients, but what's it mean for us to have a client that walks in here and they value deeply their experience that's meaningful or an intern or a staffer that their life is hopefully better because we get to do this together.