Dave Munson has the most interesting “How I started my business” story most people have ever heard, and he almost died several times doing it. He fought a bull in a Mexican bullfight, had an assassin sent to kill him, was swindled out of millions by a few kind and religious Christians and he and his family were unknowingly taken into a hair-raising Al-Shabaab terrorist village in Somalia.

Working as a volunteer English teacher in Southern Mexico, Dave designed a leather bag to carry his books, and back in the US, he was asked four to five times a day where he bought it and where they could buy one too. He figured he could have more made to fund youth ministry and that’s when the hard luck and adrenaline began to flow. He and his Black Lab, Blue, went from sleeping on the floor for a few years in a $100 apartment with no hot water in the most dangerous city in the world to walking with lions and kings in Africa.

Saddleback Leather has become known for their high quality durable leather bags and also their unprofessional and not funny marketing. So much so, Toyota asked Dave to design the leather and interior for their 2024 Limited Edition Tundra, Rolls Royce placed them in their coffee table book and the Texas Rangers baseball club asked them to be their Official Leather Goods. It seems God has turned Dave’s youth ministry into a leather ministry to love people around the world.