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Bosca: Manufacturing & Philosophy

July 14, 2023

The Bosca Accessories Company has been operating for over 112 years. The company is an Italian American success story rooted in the immigrant wave of the early 20th century. Hugo Bosca came to the US from Rome and, with partners, founded the Hugo Bosca Leather Company. His sons Mario and Orsino, and now his grandson Christopher continued the path that he established.

The Italian connection was broken during Mussolini's reign, but that is another story. For the last 50 years, our primary leathers have been sourced from one town near Florence, Italy, as has some of our production.

Over the past 30 years, I have spent at least 2-3 weeks per year in Italy working on design, product development, and quality control of our leathers. Almost all of our leather is tanned and finished in Italy outside of Florence, Italy. You can read more about our Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather here. For many years some part of our cut and sew manufacturing has been done in Italy. In 2020 we took the further step of establishing our own small leather goods factory near the tannery. In this phase of my life, I spend 3-4 months per year in Italy as we develop this resource.     

Wallet ID windows being stitched at the Bosca Italia Factory

Clearly, we love all things Italian.

The guarantee of BOSCA quality rests on our 100+ years of hands - on experience with leather, design, engineering, sourcing, and management of manufacturing processes. Made in Italy is not, however, in and of itself, an assurance of quality. Regardless of geography, the process requires management. This is what we do. This is why the BOSCA brand is a guarantee of quality and beauty.

Christopher Bosca with partners Rolando and Stefano

Over the years, we have manufactured to our precise design specifications in 6 locations in the US and in 8 foreign countries. Today we work with one factory in China, one in India, and three in Italy including to our own BOSCA Italia factory near Florence.

It takes a lot to make this all come together. We are good at what we do. We have been and remain stubbornly committed to true quality. It takes tremendous attention to detail to make this happen. After the manufacturing process, everything is inspected and packaged in Springfield, Ohio, to ensure all standards are met . We have a great team in Springfield, and everyone there takes pride in the important work they do.

The Bosca team in Springfield, Ohio

From time to time we get unfavorable feedback from customers about products made in China. We, too, are concerned about the ambitions of authoritarian governments. We disagree with the negative political aspirations of the Chinese government, but we do stand by our loyal friends and partners as well as every product we sell. There have been times (like the pandemic period, for instance) when we were able to survive because we could manufacture in our range of locations. At times we have helped our long - term partners, and they, in turn, have helped in bad times.

It is essential to recognize that while we love Italy and have many friends and associates there, we also have long standing business/personal relationships with our other partners. I have worked with one owner - family for 35 years and with three generations. These are deep relationships and they matter to us.

If you prefer a product made in Italy, we offer many. We mark every product in the "Features" of what leather was used and where we manufactured the product in an effort to provide the highest level of transparency. More than 60% of our line is made exclusively in Italy, but again, we stand behind every product we offer, and the same material, design, and quality standards apply to each product. Just as we stand by our products, partners, and philosophies, we also stand by you, the customer. Whether you just found BOSCA or you’ve been carrying a BOSCA product for 30 years, without you we could not be where we are today doing what we love – building quality products for quality people.