The Founders Edition: How Our Limited Batches & Shipping WorkUpdated 4 hours ago

A decade in the making — and made to order

The Cary Briefcase Founders Edition isn't a standard warehouse product, and that's the point. To mark ten years of the Cary, we built the first all-leather version, cut entirely from Horween's signature Essex leather — and we make it the way a piece like this deserves: in small, limited production runs. This page explains how those runs — our “batches” — work, how your Founders Edition reaches you, and where each batch currently stands.

Why we make it in batches

Horween's Essex leather is vegetable-tanned over weeks, by hand, in Chicago — it isn't a leather you can rush or stockpile. So rather than produce one large run and warehouse it, we build the Founders Edition to order, in limited batches. Each batch is a defined production run: a set quantity, made in sequence, and released as it's completed. It's slower by design — and it's exactly why our Founders Edition is a genuine limited capsule rather than an always-in-stock product.

How your Founders Edition ships

When your batch is finished at the factory, your briefcase ships directly to you — it doesn't route through a warehouse first. For US orders, it travels door-to-door by UPS express air, with duties and tariffs already included in the shipping you paid at checkout, so there's nothing further to pay on delivery. (For international orders, we ship via reliable express carriers; any local import duties are payable at importation, as shown at your checkout.)

We ship this way on purpose: straight from the maker's hands to yours, by air rather than months at sea — so it arrives quickly, and in perfect condition. Within each batch, we ship in the order that pre-orders were placed.

Which batch am I in?

Your batch is shown right in your checkout shipping selection and in your order confirmation email — for example, “Batch 01” or “Batch 02.” It's the simplest way to know exactly which run your briefcase belongs to. If you'd like to check, please pull up your Order Confirmation email and look in the "Shipping Method" section. 

As of today, we're currently taking orders against Batch 02.

Where each batch currently stands (as of September 2026)

• Batch 01 — Estimated to ship in November. The leather has been tanned and completed by Horween and is now en route to our factory. This batch is fully allocated.
• Batch 02 — Estimated to ship in December, and open for order now. About half of the leather has already been tanned, completed, and sent to our factory; the remaining leather is still to be tanned by Horween.

Because these are handmade runs, the months above are our best estimates rather than guarantees. For the most current estimated ship date for the batch you're ordering, always check the product page: the estimate appears in bold red just below the Add to Cart button (and in the Shipping & Returns section), and it's updated in real time as each run firms up — so it's always the single most up-to-date source.

A note on the wait

We know a limited run asks a little patience, and we don't take that lightly. In return, you're getting something made deliberately, in small numbers, that won't be produced endlessly — a briefcase built to be carried for years and to age into something entirely your own. The moment your batch ships, you'll receive tracking automatically; and you can update your address or cancel anytime before it ships. If a question ever comes up, we're a real team, and we're right here.

For everything else on how pre-orders work, see: Pre-orders: everything you need to know.

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