They began their career working with their father, George Schrekenhofer, Sr. “It all started with our Grandfather Michael Schrekenhofer, who came over to America from Germany. He was a shoe cobbler by trade and lived in Lebanon, Missouri. Our father, George, Sr. picked up the trade and moved to Conway. He owned and operated a shoe store & repair shop in Downtown Conway for many years,” Steve said. “My brother and I worked with our dad in the shoe repair business while we were growing up. We worked repairing shoes but also learned to make horse bridles, halters, gun holsters, and dog collars among other things. This is where we learned the leather trade. As time would have it, our father found that he could make more money, making dog collars for the hunting trade than shoe repair. He then started “Leather Enterprise,” making more and more dog collars! You might say we were raised up making dog collars! After we both graduated from college and went out and joined the work world for a couple of years, we both decided to become partners and formed our own company.

This was a time when our father was slowing down, so we decided to take over some accounts and see what would happen.” With leather craftsmanship running in the family blood, Steve and Louis began making dog collars and over the years have transformed this unique item into a thriving business that currently supplies stores, chains, and distributors worldwide. “We started out in a small building on Front Street, doing all the work ourselves with little equipment, growing each year. And later moved to Nabholz Avenue, our present location. We have been blessed with many loyal and dedicated associates being both family and non-family that have worked with us over the years.” The company is now going into the fourth generation with Steve and Louis’s children. The company began selling mostly within the state of Arkansas, but now ships worldwide and is one of the leading manufacturers of dog supplies in the United States. They started out selling to the hunting and equine industry, working primarily with leather making dog collars and horse tack.

In 1982, they decided to focus on dog products. In the early years they primarily worked with leather. Today they work with many materials, and they do a lot of contract manufacturing and private labeling. Leather Brothers is one of the few remaining “cut and sew” pet product factories in the United States. They still produce a large portion of their products here in Conway with a skilled workforce, which they are very proud of. Helping with the resurgence of American -made products within the pet industry has been a blessing. Steve and Louis have been around leather their whole lives. Their expertise in leather will guarantee customer satisfaction and give customers the peace of mind that they are getting an American-made product from experienced and trustworthy people.

Leather Brothers supplies products bearing the brand name OmniPet® to an evergrowing network of dealers and distributors worldwide. The company adopted the brand name as it became more diverse in the pet market. Omni means “ALL” so as they made and sold more and more items to the pet market, the company needed an all-inclusive name. The name Leather Brothers came about one night when Steve and Louis showed up at their parents house both wearing leather jackets, to which their mother exclaimed, “Look, it’s the leather brothers!” And the name stuck.