Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 4.22.15

30 | APRIL 22, 2015 FLATHEADBEACON.COM
BUSINESS
Leather and Luggage in Kalispell
Ryan Motley works on bags
for his company, Bespoke.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
RECENTLY OPENED BUSINESS WILL SPECIALIZE IN HIGH-END BAGS FOR MEN AND WOMEN
By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
I n Western lore, it doesn’t get much tougher than leather. It came from tanned cattle hides, made saddles and cowboy boots, and was used as a descriptor for particu-
larly rugged people.
In Kalispell, Ryan Motley hopes to
become part of leather’s legacy in the Mountain West, but his approach is more about beauty and utility, and less about ruggedness.
Motley’s new business, Bespoke, opened in August. His shop near down- town Kalispell serves as a workspace and showroom, where the traditional leather luggage pieces he builds sit on display.
But these pieces, custom made for European sports cars, represent Be- spoke’s past, when it belonged to a man in the United Kingdom. Motley is fo- cused on the company’s American fu-
ture, which will include branching into men and women’s bag fashion as well as travel gear.
Sitting among his tools and fabric in the open, light space, Motley admits he’s more surprised about his new business than anyone else.
“If you would have asked me six years ago what I was going to be doing, it wouldn’t be this,” he said.
Motley, 29, graduated from Vanguard University in Southern California with a degree in business administration and a minor in religion. He had internships with investment companies lined up, but realized his heart wasn’t in it.
Plus, he wanted to get back to Mon- tana, especially the Flathead, where he had lived since seventh grade. He was in the Bitterroot Valley before that. Living in a Californian city performing work he
didn’t even like wasn’t an option, he said. “I can sit here in a place I want to be, and just be able to do what I want to do,”
Motley said.
Instead of a career in investing, Mot-
ley looked to his experience founding Crochet Kids International, a nonprofit that teaches women in Northern Uganda to crochet, market their wares, and build businesses during a five-year course.
It was rewarding, Motley said, and it also dealt with the business of textiles. If he could get back to something like that, he figured, his future would open up again.
“Originally, I kind of wanted to do something similarly to what we did there, but with a different textile,” he said.
Leather caught his interest, given its strength and beauty, and Motley re- searched potential businesses for sale.