Why JonWye is Awesome

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I started out making belt buckles after a first date. A few months later it turned into a company. I made a lot of "unique" looking belts in the beginning, but kept pushing myself to learn more about design and business.

Things really started to take off when I came up with an idea for getting images onto leather. I went from a buckle designer to a belt designer... and eventually added t-shirts. Now about half my business is belts and half is t-shirts.

Classified

With the idea of putting cool images onto leather belts I started to build a machine to accomplish the task. You can see by the photo to the right that it's pretty self-explanatory. As of 2008 I'm now on generation three of the machine, and light-years ahead of where I started. For each of the unique things in my line I've had to invent a number of machines and processes along the way. Some more secret than others.

Growing up, I learned with my best friends, Brian and Jacob, about inventing and building from David Macaulay's book, 'The Way Things Work.' Little cartoon woolly mammoths taught us everything we needed to know about gears and pulleys and electrical wiring. LEGO pieces also deserve a lot of credit. So I have literally built this company thanks to a childhood spent wandering around Washington, DC looking for construction materials.

This is the studio. A sauna in the summer and Superman's Ice Fortress in the winter. It is stuffed into the narrow half of a two-car garage in Washington, DC. Being a DC Native - a city kid, I am still sometimes amazed that I was able to figure out all of the tools I needed for a mini belt-making factory. I have machines from Texas, Korea, Italy, China, Germany, and then the super secret one I've built... so Washington, DC also.

This is Nikki and Fred, the two people I spend most of my time with when I'm not working on building my brand. Yes, I just called my dog people.'They are my anchors to life and the ones who help bring me back to reality when I start to float away in thought. Nikki makes sure I eat enough... but I still stay up way too late. There's always something to do later at night!

This is Keith Lane, often introduced as my Vice President of Marketing. Somehow Keith manages to swing through DC, on his way to other adventures, just when I am the busiest and most in need of help. I would have been in some serious jams if it weren't for him. Keith needs to get back from Bangladesh already and help me pimp this company!

This is David William, an extremely talented artist and the first artist who would work with me. We both kinda took a chance on each other. If you pose an artistic question to him his response is genius. When David learns how to ask those questions of himself (trust me, artistic introspection isn't as easy as it sounds) he will be too famous to work with me. He... "makes stuff, does things."

Scott White started in the comic book world but I am turning him into a clothing graphic designer. It is my opinion that Scott's tattoo styles are so good that he crushes anything out there. When I eventually get full sleeves it will be he that designs them for me.

Misael Armendariz is the head artist at Jacob's (best friend growing up) video game company in Seattle, Gastronaut Studios. He is a wonderful family man, who I swear doesn't sleep. He works a full day job, puts in a full night with the family, and then works on my belt designs.

All the belts are still made in-house - I can't have my secrets getting out. On most days, when I'm not stuck at the computer, I'm in the studio cranking out belt and t-shirt orders as they come in from online. And when I am really lucky I have super intern Heidi to help me. I think she was created with fairy dust and delivered to my doorstep as an early Christmas present.

If ever I get hit by a truck it is Heidi who will take over the company while I am in physical therapy. I just hope she doesn't steal Fred... I mean, he is almost the company mascot. He does have intern seniority over Heidi, but he's not very good at math or responding to e-mails.

And the infamous Fred. He knows all my secrets and blabbers them to everyone. Luckily only I understand his language so the secrets are still safe. I talk to that dog far too much throughout the day. He is my best buddy!

Dogs are a great sounding board for our inner thoughts. If you need to get an idea out, that is stuck in your brain, I highly suggest talking to an animal. This is how Fred interns...

Below is my newest invention, the VR Photo Dome. It is not one of my super secret inventions so I can share a little of this one with you. While sitting outside at various outdoor festivals selling my t-shirts and belts I had this idea for making all of my belts viewable from all angles, just like people are able to see them when I am selling outdoors. It took me over a year to bring the idea to fruition, but the result is so cool. You can now view almost all of my belts in a 360 degree rotating window.

So this is a snap shot of the brand Jon Wye. It has a lot of wonderful people involved in it, and I am blessed to have them in my life.

<-- This is Adam. He makes darn good pizza. And I just wanted to share this photo.

Find out more about our product ranges...

Funky Leather Belts

Jon Wye, first in funky mens and womens leather belts, brings you a line of fun accessories that will make any outfit pop! America's Heritage Outfit is the t-shirt and jeans combo. To that outfit Jon Wye adds the leather belt and belt buckle.

Jeans express strength, a cool t-shirt expresses a casual and relaxed nature, and with the addition of a leather belt from Jon Wye you now add individuality to your style.

Designer Leather Belts

To our line of funky print series leather belts we add a more traditional touch. Each of our Traditional Series leather belts are accented with our new signature stainless steel belt buckle. Designed to compliment any outfit, whether for the office or a night out. Your belt loops crave company... help them out with class.

Custom Belt Buckles

To complement our line of funky leather belts, may we present our ever-expanding line of custom belt buckles. Our belt buckles are custom because we allow you to mix and match your own personal style combination of cool leather belt to funky belt buckle. We put a few belt and buckle combinations together for you, to give you a head start in your fashion accessory decision process. However, should you decide to venture on your own, simply select "Just the belt please" in our Leather Belt and Belt Buckle Combo page, then click on over to the belt buckle section and make your own custom belt buckle selection.

Designer T-shirts

We started with a few custom belt buckles and funky leather belts, and now offer a wide range of designer t-shirts. We already agreed that the classic American outfit is a good pair of jeans and a cool t-shirt, with the addition of a Jon Wye Leather Belt of course. Now you can take your leather belt styling one step further with a matching Jon Wye T-shirt. Once we start offering denim jeans it will be all over for you... you'll never need to look any further than www.jonwye.com for your fall fashion.

Dog Collars by FREDFRED

Designer Dog Collars are a natural extension of being a belt designer. For sometime now people have been asking when can they expect fashionable collars for their pets. Well, Dog Collars have finally arrived, and named after Jon Wye's Bestest Buddy, his dog Fred. While Jon toils away on his own brand, he felt it only fitting that Fred have his own line as well. They took a while to design, but now they are ready for the public, complete with custom stainless steel buckles and D-Rings. Fred is ready for the runway and a casual stroll to the Dog Park.

An Ever Expanding Line of Mens and Womens Accessories

We might be first in funky leather belts and custom belt buckles, but we are always adding more clothing accessories to our fashion line. In the coming months look for our new line of Mens and Womens knit socks with cool funky prints inspired by our popular designer t-shirts. And for those cool fall afternoons and cozy winter nights on the town look for our line of scarves with equally cool prints nestled at the tips of our colorful range of scarves.

For those who first patroned our leather belt and custom belt buckle website when we were first starting out you may remember we began offering a small assortment of fun womens undies. Well, the funky womens undies are back! And now fun mens underwear too! Soon jonwye.com will introduce a fun womens and mens accessories line, which will include a wide range of fun undies with colorful designer prints.

Look for all these designs AND MORE!