How to Buy Leather in Sinseol-dong - Firenze Leather, Shinyoung Thinness

When buying leather hides, I mostly ordered online rather than going to Sinseol-dong.

This was because the process of buying leather, thinning it, and bringing it home from Sinseol-dong was too exhausting.

Considering the cost and time it takes to travel to Sinseol-dong, I didn't think the cost of thinning service and delivery was that expensive. 

However, this time I wanted to visit Firenze Leather.

Firenze Leather is famous for selling Pueblo shoulder and belly lines, and the pricing is quite reasonable with thinning services available, so I frequented there.

It felt quite different from the Pueblo of Ezter Leather, but the feel of Pueblo itself was so good.

1. Buying Leather: Firenze Leather

As always, I got off at Sinseol-dong Station and headed to the center of the Sinseol-dong Leather Market.

Turning left on the main street of the market, I found Firenze Leather.

Firenze Leather
32 Nangye-ro 25-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 1st Floor
Open daily 9:30 - 18:00, Saturday 10:30 - 15:30 / Closed on Sunday

The entrance looked very sleek.

While other stores had colorful old-style signage, the Firenze Leather sign was neat with a black background and white letters.

When I went inside, saying I was there to buy the Pueblo belly line, they asked me to check out the leather samples on the right at the entrance.

Looking through the belly line, everything looked beautiful as expected. 

I took a tour around the store.

The store seemed well-organized and clean.

I purchased the light caramel from the Pueblo belly line. 

A color that is neither fully orange nor brown, with a slightly reddish hue.

Still, it’s very pretty.

I thought using brown thread would make for nice products.

The leather was around 10 square meters.

I bought it for a little over 100,000 won. 

2. Thinning - Shinyoung Thinness

I still don't have a thinning machine at home.

So usually, when I buy leather, I have the whole piece thinned to 0.7~1.0T.

There are two main places in Sinseol-dong where the entire leather piece can be thinned.

Narae Thinness, and Shinyoung Thinness.

I always used Narae Thinness, but I decided to try Shinyoung this time.

Shinyoung Thinness
16 Jongno 66ga-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Daesung Building
Open daily 08:00 - 18:00, Saturdays and public holidays 08:00 - 15:00, Closed every third Saturday 

I had been unable to visit Shinyoung Thinness because I once went there past 3 PM on a Saturday and it was closed.

This time, I managed to visit.

Two owners were busy thinning leather.

The sparks flying by the machine as they sharpened the blades were fascinating.

They warned that it might be risky to thin the belly line below 1.0T.

It seemed to be because the belly is very wrinkled and has a lot of waste.

But what can you do?

I asked them to go ahead anyway.

While waiting for the thinning to finish, I took a brief stroll around the store.

Fortunately, the thinning turned out well.

Anyway, considering the belly line has a lot of loss, I thought it was okay because it's cheap with a lot to lose.

Back home, I trimmed the excessively thin or holey sections.

Seemed like I would use it later for temperature checks during embossing.

3. How to Buy Leather in Sinseol-dong

For hobbyists like me doing leather crafts, visiting Sinseol-dong for the first time can be intimidating, even just entering a store.

If you're unsure which store to buy leather from, I recommend researching online before you go.

Many leather shops have blogs or Instagram accounts, so you can find them online and make a quicker purchase.

If you head to Sinseol-dong without a plan, feel free to just walk into any store.

No one will mind if you don't buy anything.

If you find it hard to leave, just say, 'I'll look around and come back.'

Considering leather products often require comparison shopping to find good ones, I hope you explore Sinseol-dong thoroughly.

You'll likely find joy in exploring the area.