About Friday And River

Our Story

Founded in 2011 and based in San Diego, California, Friday & River is a creative collaboration between husband and wife team, Joe Freitag and Yumi Kawamura. After over a decade of working together on creative projects, and working professionally in the design and media industry, we took our passion for creating meaningful and personal handmade gifts and launched Friday & River.

The name and icon of Friday & River tell the story of our collaboration – who we are, where we’ve been, and how those things shaped the soul and aesthetic of F&R.

The Name & Icon

‘Friday’ comes from Joe’s last name, which means ‘Friday’ in German. ‘River’ comes from Yumi’s last name which means ‘Big River Town’ in Japanese. The name Friday & River came naturally.

At the center of the icon is a Japanese-inspired combination of the letters F and R, with a compass-like graphic surrounding it, signifying our origins (Joe from Seattle WA, Yumi from Kagoshima Japan), and the places around the world where we’ve lived and traveled. We currently live and make our products in San Diego, California.

Our Mission

Our mission is to create unique, handcrafted, high-quality, meaningful and personal items that you love to carry with you and help tell the story of who you are.

We also want to make the world a better place. A percentage of every sale is donated to one of several charities that we contribute to, such as Toys For Tots, St. Vincent de Paul, and The Red Cross.

Process & Materials

All of our leather goods are handcrafted by Joe, with the highest quality materials following traditional leathercraft techniques and methods.

All knit goods and jewelry are made by hand by Yumi, and the materials for each piece are carefully selected and crafted with the utmost care and attention to detail.

We are constantly striving to improve our designs and deliver the highest quality product. This means that on any given item we may chose to replace materials or update construction, which could mean that the item you receive is slightly different from the picture you see on the site.

We know that the things you choose to carry with you on a daily basis are very personal, so each piece extremely limited in quantity (often one-of-a-kind), to insure that each item is unique to its owner.

Leather Care

It is important to take care of your leather, and with regular use the natural oils from handling will insure that it ages beautifully and lasts a lifetime.

If leather is dirty, wipe with a lightly damp cloth and allow to air-dry.

If leather is dry, rub with a light coating of a leather-conditioning oil such as neatsfoot, mink oil, Obenauf’s Leather Oil, Feibing’s 4-Way Care, or Lexol Leather Conditioner.

Friday & River leather goods and accessories are handmade in San Diego, California USA. All of our leather products are made to look better with age. Every piece is meant to establish its own wear pattern and patina that reflects the lifestyle of the user. Each piece of leather is special and possesses its own marks, color, grain, etc, and may vary depending on the piece it is cut from. Each stitch is done by hand and patterns may vary slightly. These are not imperfections, but characteristics that make each item a one-of-a-kind.

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