MADE IN TEXAS
He Goes With the Grain Clint Wilkinson carries on his grandfather’s leatherworking legacy out of the same downtown Denton storefront. BY PAUL L. UNDERWOOD
OUT THERE
Meanwhile, In Texas
After the San Antonio Zoo announced the birth of Tupi, the first capybara born there since 2000, it had to clarify to X users that it was “not associated with or benefiting from” a crypto- currency named after the baby animal. The number one item on the TSA’s top ten list of the most unusual airport confiscations in 2024 was a gun tucked into the back of a baby stroller at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. The Texas State Aquarium, in Corpus Christi, released into the Gulf of Mex- ico some 270 green sea turtles it had rescued when they became hypother- mic during a recent cold snap. A Temple woman was sentenced to felony probation for theft after with- drawing money from a GoFundMe account created for her after she lied about a cancer diagnosis so that her friends “would like her more.” A Bexar County jail officer was arrest- ed and fired after allegedly giving an inmate food from Whataburger . After the Houston Police Department announced plans to clean up its prop- erty warehouse, authorities revealed that rats had possibly compromised ongoing cases by eating mushrooms and other drugs stored as evidence. A man stole a pickup truck and led police on a chase to the Midland airport, where he drove through the perimeter fence and onto the runways before abandoning the vehicle. —Meher Yeda
George W. Bush and Fort Worth soul star Leon Bridges, as well as Stetson and 7-Eleven. Wilkinson works out of the downtown cor- ner storefront once owned by his grandfather Weldon Burgoon, who opened Weldon’s Sad- dle Shop & Western Wear in 1957. Burgoon, who helped cover the cost of Clint’s birth, in 1982, by giving a saddle to the obstetrician, taught his grandson the craft. Wilkinson started an e-commerce site for the shop and, with his grandfather’s encour- agement, began branding his own handsewn leather goods with his name. In 2019, a year after Burgoon died, Wilkin- son reopened the shop, which he renamed Wilkinson’s Fine Goods. He’s known for his leather tote bags, belts, and wallets, and he sells wares from other brands, like Nocona- based Fenoglio Boot Company. He’s also de- veloping a line of leather-crafting supplies. The intention, he says, is to create “a way that I can still be in the leather community when I’m seventy-five years old and can’t make anything anymore.”
LAST SUMMER, WILKINSON’S FineGoods, in Denton, received its biggest online order to date. Owner Clint Wilkinson was intrigued by his new client, who purchased a massive array of custom desk mats, bootjacks, and cherrywood boxes with hand-tooled leather accents. “I was just like, ‘Holy crap,’�” Wilkin- son recalls. “He must be a politician or lawyer or something.” Not quite. Wilkinson looked up the buyer, a Utah resident named Austin Post, and re- alized that he was doing business with Post Malone, the rapper who was raised in nearby Grapevine. Wilkinson emailed him to explain that fulfillment would take some time be- cause every item would be handmade. The two now exchange texts about everything from the order’s progress to the woes of their be- loved Dallas Cowboys. Eventually Wilkinson’s client list would include former President
Clint Wilkinson and Charlie Talkington in the Wilkinson’s Fine Goods workshop, in Denton.
33
NEW BRAUNFELS EDITION
Powered by FlippingBook