# Is Your $3,000 Handbag Worth It? Tanner Leatherstein Has the Answer. Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606/is-your-3-000-handbag-worth-it-tanner-leatherstein-has-the-answer Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606/is-your-3-000-handbag-worth-it-tanner-leatherstein-has-the-answer.md Podcast: [The Business of Fashion Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606) Published: 2026-03-27T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-business-of-fashion-podcast/episodes/69c42ba61d78c4aa57cf3eda Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6355d904dd5e0e0012da88d1/e/69c42ba61d78c4aa57cf3eda/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606/episodes/is-your-3-000-handbag-worth-it-tanner-leatherstein-has-the-answer Duration seconds: 2855 ## Resource Volkan Yilmaz — known to his millions of followers as Tanner Leatherstein — grew up in his family's tannery in Turkey, learning to convert raw animal hides into finished leather from the age of eleven.  That foundation took him through an improbable journey: a failed business venture in Turkmenistan, a green card lottery win, years driving trucks and cabs across New Jersey and Chicago, an MBA, a brief stint in management consulting he couldn't stand, an Etsy shop he built from scratch — and eventually, almost by accident, a viral video that changed everything. He started cutting luxury bags open. Applying acetone to test the finish. Burning the leather to verify tanning claims. Scratching the hardware to see what's underneath. And asking, what are you really paying for? “At upwards of $500, they’re not selling you a leather bag, they’re selling you a signal of status loaded on, hopefully, a good leather bag,” he says. “If I’m a customer of this brand paying $3,000, I know I’m buying a status signal, but at least I deserve the best quality of materials and craftsmanship.” Leatherstein joined BoF founder Imran Amed at our London offices to discuss what he's found inside some of the world's most famous handbags, what it tells us about the relationship between price and quality in luxury, and what he believes comes next for an industry under growing pressure from consumers who are no longer willing to take marketing at face value. The tannery is where his authority comes from. Yilmaz grew up in his father's Turkish tannery, learning to select raw skins and work through the chemistry of tanning from the age of eleven. That early immersion — sensory, unglamorous, technical — is what allows him to read a bag's construction in ways most consumers cannot. "I was so fascina… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606/episodes/is-your-3-000-handbag-worth-it-tanner-leatherstein-has-the-answer/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-of-fashion-podcast-879606/is-your-3-000-handbag-worth-it-tanner-leatherstein-has-the-answer.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.