Apex Leather: Small Town Roots, Big Industry Impact

Family Owned and Doing Big Things!

TUCKED away in the foothills of North Carolina is an old-school leather company that is still committed to doing things the right way. Apex Leather has called small-town Hudson (population 3,770) home for nearly 25 years. While its facility doesn’t produce leather on the scale it once did, the hides, expertise, and equipment are still in abundant supply and cranking out some of the best in our custom automotive industry.

Apex burst onto the scene several years back as it shifted its focus to the custom aftermarket. The leather at Apex—and the people just as much—really made the auto community take notice. While many folks sell leather, a company that still produces it, understands it, and stocks everything on-site is becoming much more rare in this day and age.

“These old mills have been turning leather for over 50 years,” says Jen Fedor, vice president of Apex Leather. “This place used to make tons of OEM leather, but that kind of went away about 20 years ago. We have constantly had to re-tool to survive and meet the changing needs of the markets.”

Her pride in Apex is easy to spot. One example Fedor highlights is when Apex first started selling to auto upholstery shops—they only offered leather back then.

“We realized quickly that shops wanted to get as much as they could from just one place and that’s what we’re striving to be—a one-stop shop,” she says.

Today, a walk around the plant reveals huge rolls of carpet stacked like logs waiting to be milled, shelves with thousands of thread spools, and of course, aisle after aisle of leather hides.

If you spend time with the Apex team, you can quickly tell these folks are seriously dedicated to their craft.

Ask Fedor how she developed such a keen focus on customer needs and she responds, “It’s not complicated, we listen closely to our customers and try to build genuine relationships along the way. We also constantly stress to our team the importance of getting every order just right.”

If you spend time with the Apex team, you can quickly tell these folks are seriously dedicated to their craft. How does Fedor manage her staff, customers, social media, and the general craziness of running a business? Perhaps her best training was years as a pre-kindergarten teacher. As they say, we are all just big kids after all. Of course, it also takes passion for the work, and she has that in spades.

Speaking of “kids,” Bailey McKeska, the now 17-year-old who recently debuted her first build at SEMA, just happened to be in the neighborhood. Bailey and her dad, Mike, built her squarebody C10 from the ground-up and landed a cover spot on this very magazine  after the successful SEMA debut in the Air Lift Performance SEMA booth. Bailey and her Dad made the trek from Ohio to North Carolina for the Mini Truckin’ Nationals, but first they wanted to swing by Apex for a visit!

While Bailey’s stunning C10 resto-mod (fully Apex equipped with the master upholstery work from Trent’s Trick Upholstery) “stole the show” at SEMA, the family had been working hand-in-hand with Jen behind the scenes to promote the build and perhaps more importantly, prepare Bailey for her moment “on the big stage.”

Bailey adds, “We spent all our time in the shop and this was all new to me, so we really didn’t know how to tell our story or what to expect.”

Jen worked hand-in-hand lockstep along the way to help make sure that Bailey and Mike were able to debut on their terms—just one small example of how Jen and Apex are helping to make a big impact in the custom industry.

Later in the afternoon, after an Apex Leather plant tour and some great pictures with the staff, Bailey and Mike headed out to see the Apex mural. The team resumed their normal routines: Christy continued at the inspection table where every hide is carefully inspected and rolled, Ashley and Tyrone (known by all as “Tater”) processed and shipped the day’s orders, and Roger continued hand-finishing some hides destined for a custom Range Rover interior.

It is no secret how difficult the leather business is. No two cow hides are ever alike. Using a product that is “flawed” by nature to create something but being expected to be near-perfect by the customer is a daunting task to say the least.

“Making great leather is a combination of machinery, chemistry, and craftsmanship. It is hard to get it just right but that is our commitment to our customers,” Fedor shared.

These are the realities faced every day at Apex, and the stress and strain are real. Fedor is keenly aware of this and appears at times more like a cheerleader and best friend than the boss. Fedor is passionate about encouraging the team to keep “humming along”  like all the old leather machines—till doing what they were intended to do and making their mark on everything along the way!

Photo Credit: Jordan Vilonna