Rising Stars: Meet Greg Gibbs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Gibbs.

Hi Greg, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are Greg & Carla Gibbs and we own Ox & Cart Leather. We live in Spring Hill, TN & have been married 15 years. We have 2 boys- Zoriah & Joaquin & a rescue pup named Xena River. Ox & Cart started in 2015 as a way for us to help support our yearly missions trips. We sold coffee & used those funds to buy supplies to take on our missions trips to Guatemala.

The name Ox and Cart comes from Greg’s first missions trip to Nicaragua. In the farm town of Amatitan, he was intrigued by how the people would head to work with their oxen & carts. In 2020, we decided to add leather to the mix. In 2020 due to the pandemic, Greg started working his full-time job from home & during the evenings & weekends, he started working with his first roll of leather. He made his first hand-stitched journal and was hooked.

He watched & read tutorials and taught himself the art of leather craft. That year he made Christmas gifts for our close friends- Dopp bags for the guys & Tote bags for their wives. After that, we decided that there was no time like the present to pursue this new venture & we converted our garage during the first part of 2021 into our leather shop. We purchased a few machines to help with production & in April of 2021, we launched our website. In May of 2021, we applied for our first festival- The Main Street Festival in Downtown Franklin- & we were accepted.

Since that time we have been a part of 4 festivals- Main Street Festival & Pumpkinfest in Franklin & Boutique Bazaar in Gallatin & Holiday Market in Spring Hill, along with several other smaller pop-ups. Our leather goods can now be found in the Painted Tree Marketplace in Franklin & Hippington in Clarksville. We just finished our first Holiday season & the response was more than we could have ever asked for. We pray this side hustle will turn into a full-time hustle in the near future & we can continue to support non-profit organizations as missions work has always been very important to us.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our biggest challenge right now is finding enough time to work on our craft as we both still have other jobs. Greg still works full time during the day in sales & Carla works part time from home. It is very important for our family to find a good balance between work, leather & life.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We offer handcrafted leather goods- Women’s Tote Bags, Backpacks, Pouches, Card Holders, Key Rings, Earrings & Men’s Dopp Bags, Card Holders, Passport Covers, Key Hooks, Journal Covers, Cigar Rolls & Valet Trays. We plan on adding more items in 2022!

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can find our leather goods at our booth at the Painted Tree Marketplace in Franklin & at Hippington in Clarksville.

Contact Info:

• Email: oxandcartleather@gmail.com
• Website: www.oxandcartleather.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/oxandcartleather
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/oxandcartleather