Established by Adam Atkinson in 2007 the company began with a simple idea to make bags using the discarded wool of the ancient Herdwick breed.

After passing the Cherchbi brand over to Mowbray Leather Goods in 2018, Adam remains at the forefront of all design related decisions for the brand. Combining forces has allowed Cherchbi to grow into the highest quality and most sustainable version of itself. Adam's 12 years of experience working with Cherchbi designs, quality control procedures and customers, combined with Mowbray Leather Goods' highly skilled expertise in leather work, bag making and sustainable material sourcing has resulted in our highest quality range of goods to date.

Re-visiting each classic Cherchbi design with fresh eyes has allowed the construction and quality of each piece to be re-developed into the most luxurious and hard wearing collection of premium goods.

Honest Luxury

Each element that goes into the construction of every Cherchbi bag demonstrates honest premium quality and true attention to detail. Within Melton Mowbray, England our highly skilled leather workers and bag makers carefully handcraft each Cherchbi piece using only the most exceptional materials. Our low waste, robust design combined with local and quality sourcing makes the creation of each Cherchbi piece highly sustainable, offering you a ware that can be carried with you through a lifetime.

Design Process

Our main design principle is intuitive functionality. Our modern designs are easy to use and aesthetically correct. Design details are pared down to their essence ensuring the qualities inherent in our natural materials are visible.

The design process begins with reference to our archive of vintage, utilitarian and military styles alongside research into ergonomics, function and the use of bags. Individual sketches and a line-plan determine the collection architecture.

The sketches are developed into detailed specification drawings. Simple calico mock-ups are produced which prove the construction, shape and size of each bag. The mock-ups and corresponding specification drawings are revised until both are correct then passed to the sample and pattern maker who produces a prototype. After review and further revisions a final sample is made in the correct materials.

Upon final approval the sample maker produces a factory sample and a series of detailed production notes and photographs explaining the many hundreds of individual processes required to manufacture the bag.

British Materials

AW Hainsworth’s iconic woolen cloth has been milled out of West Yorkshire since 1783. For the past 236 years they have been the clothier of choice for British royalty, military and uniformed servicemen and women; making their wool the perfect fit for the outer fabric used within our True Heritage collection. Their military grade wool has been used within the new range to reflect the made in England principles that our brand is built upon, as well as to increase the luxury of our goods and their quality.

Luxury is meaningless unless weaved into each individual element of a premium item piece be it notably visible or not; so the lining of all Cherchbi pieces are made exclusively using 100% dyed cotton from Manchester’s oldest and most premium textile mill, Behren’s.

We use English-cast brass buckles and metalware where possible. As there are no British zip makers we use Riri of Switzerland, widely considered to be the finest quality available.

Bench made in one of the last leather goods factories in the UK

Our bags are produced in Melton Mowbray, England within one of the country's last remaining leather goods factories. Each item is individually constructed with pride and perfection and we employ a robust construction style that references aspects of English saddlery and equestrian leatherwork techniques to deliver pieces with lifelong durability.

All of our bags are bench-made, a method ideally suited to small-scale, batch production. The textile parts are hand-cut and the leather components are cut on a press with shaped knives and each bag is precisely assembled one stage at a time by one of our highly skilled craftsmen using a machine and bench.

Our leather is sourced from the finest Italian leather merchants who are internationally recognised as being the best in the world. The leathers we use are only the highest quality vegetable tanned hides and are designed for not only style, but for longevity.