Anyone have information about this tag I found inside a pair of bark blue suade shorts?

Hi! I have held onto these shorts that are too small for me but came across this site and was curious about the tags and the story behind them!

 

I recall there being a bunch of leather artisans in San Franciso in the 60s/70s, Zig Zag one of them though I've only seen the label. I was just a kid but we'd pop into some of those small shops and see all kinds of things. My mother had one of them repair purses and boots. They were better than cobblers, very creative problem solvers.

Looks like they were lucky enough to get some of their designs in Saks which explains the 2 labels.

 

A 1971 article about Zig-Zag Leathers noted that "Hal Friedman, president of the firm" and a former rtw salesman, started the firm with two others ("Ted Reich, a former Levi Strauss salesman, who handles administration and finance, and Americo Romero-Bar, a Peruvian who owns Alvin Duskin's plant and went with Friedman when he started up"). The article also noted Zig-Zag "started to manufacture leather apparel (jn San Francisco) in October 1969." Friedman heard of Reich, "who owned a small store in Sonoma...and made leather pants and skirts in the back room, in the summer of 1969" and went to Reich's store and came back with an order for 500, after which they went into business together, making women's clothes. Eventually almost one-third of their business was making men's clothing.

All three partners participated in the designing of the clothes and by 1971 their best-sellers were jeans, but you might be interested to learn in January 1971 they offered "...two different HotPants styles."

The last reference I found to Zig-Zag -- thus far --was in 1972.

 

One additional bit of information about Zig-Zag from a 1970 article: "We specialize in making our leathers the natural way...We don't spray-dye any of them, because we feel the natural colorations are beautiful as they are. We leave in the blemishes and barb-wire marks" and "Since our things are based on Old West designs...it is difficult to call it designing."

 

That's wild. I grew up in the town of Sonoma so his store must've been on the Plaza.