Family-inspired leather brand: Why It’s Called MEARS Workshop.

Shakespeare once asked, ‘What’s in a name?’ For me, the answer is: everything.

The name MEARS isn’t a brand exercise or something dreamed up in a notebook full of logo sketches. It’s much simpler than that.

MEARS comes from the initials of the five people in my immediate family.

Matty.

Emma-Jay.

Arthur.

Rory.

Sybil.

Me, my wife, and our three children. In age order.

When I started making things in the evenings, this was all happening around family life. Leather on the table after the kids were in bed. Orders packed between school runs and work. It felt important that the name reflected my family-inspired leather brand, because this whole thing exists inside our family, not separate from it.

The logo follows the same idea. It’s based on the five face of a dice. One dot in the middle, four around it. I sit in the centre surrounded by the four most important people in my life. Not above them. Not leading them. Just held in place by them.

It also felt right for something that’s handmade and a bit imperfect. A dice roll is never guaranteed, and starting something new always comes with a bit of risk. This workshop is no different.

So when you see the name or the logo, it isn’t just decoration. It’s a reminder of why this exists in the first place. Family first. Making second. Everything else fits around that.

Matty.