Question 1

How long is the main body of the strap, without the thinner adjustment piece?

Accepted Answer

Hi,

Thanks for the question. The large shoulder panel, without the adjustment section, measures 101cm or just a little under 40".

Hope this helps, and thanks for checking out Bison Boa.

Question 2

Is the strap made from the hide of water buffalo, european bison or american bison?

Accepted Answer

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your question.

The species is a domesticated European breed of the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). The bison in the Bison Boa name is unrelated to the leather we use.

Not that you asked for it, but here is a little more detail on why we use the leathers we do. Aside from being motivated by quality and provenance, we have a strict selection policy based on leather ethics......

While populations of the American and European bison are improving (I believe), they are still both classed as 'near threatened' species. They are also almost exclusively wild animals that aren't typically available to tanneries. Besides, even if we could access bison hides, we would decline them. We have a strict ethics policy on leather where we only use hides that that meet one of two possible criteria:

A: By-product of the domestic livestock industry where the primary value of the animal is not related to it's hide:

Example of ok: Cowhide where around 2-5% of the value of the animal is in the hide. The cost of premium leather is introduced by the process of the tannery, and is not a significant motive for the farmer to rear the animal.

Example of not ok: Snake, crocodile or alligator leather. These animals are typically farmed for the primary value of their hides. We have full access to leather like this, and we could make very high quality straps from them, and make great profit on them, but they break our ethics rule on being by-product. If you ever see an alligator or crocodile Bison Boa strap in the future it will be an embossed pattern on cowhide (better quality anyway). We're not judging anybody else for their use of these leathers, but knowing what we know, this leather is not for us.

B: Only use hides from wild animals if they were part of an environmental conservation cull:

Example of ok: We may be developing a wild African kudu strap later this year. Because of the decline of the number of predators, some kudu populations are rampant and resulting in environmental damage. This is similar situation to the need for deer culls in the UK where there are no natural predators anymore they overgraze ecosystems. With the kudu, culls are required to keep some of the populations in check, and protect national parks in Africa, therefore there is zero primary value in the hide.

Example of not ok: Anything wild that isn't part of an environmental population cull; American Bison, European Bison, Python, Hippo, Unicorns etc.

I write this answer as Bison Boa founder, Morgan (hi people!). So I can guarantee that this leather ethics policy, and our environmental stance, comes from me personally and won't be changed in the name of profit. We're a small independent brand that doesn't have to answer to investors. Before I founded Bison Boa I got a degree in environmental science with a specialisation in ecology and was a PhD student in climate change modelling (I dropped out to run Bison Boa). I can assure you that I'm always looking for ways to make Bison Boa more environmentally positive like switching to paper outer packaging for all our straps etc. Bison Boa is also proudly a carbon negative brand and I'll make sure that continues.

So, a very long answer to a question you didn't really ask! I hope you didn't mind me going into more detail. Thank you for taking a look at Bison Boa, it means the world to us.

Question 3

Where are the slaughtered bison sourced from and what are the conditions they are kept in before being killed and exported to the UK?

Accepted Answer

Hi, thanks for your question. So, it's not a straight forward answer... Tanneries often refuse to divulge their sources for skins when they find something special. This is a way to stop other tanneries finding out and producing the same tanned product. Protecting material supplier's identities is standard in many industries.

However, when we designed the Buffalo King, we absolutely asked the question as we wanted reassurance in welfare too. We can tell you that the tannery is located in the Netherlands and conforms to EU environmental and welfare standards. While they won't tell us the source, they do have their own internal standards that their suppliers have to pass. They were also able to confirm to us that the skins are not sourced from Chinese farms. They were also able to confirm that the skins are CITES compliant. We have a strong suspicion that the skins originate from a certain European country that enjoys making mozzarella from buffalo milk, but we can't say more than that.

We're sorry we couldn't give the exact concise answer you we're looking for.

What we can tell you as fact is that one of the projects we use to offset the carbon emissions for the Buffalo King is helping to shut down badly run cattle farms in South America and replace them with forests. So, some of the profit of the Buffalo King is redirected to habitat creation and promotion of positive cattle welfare.

All leather products sit somewhere on the ethics spectrum. We do as much as we can to make sure our products are as high on that ethics spectrum as we possibly can.

We hope we've given you enough information to feel reassured about the product's ethical score.

Package Dimensions	16.1 x 10 x 6.5 cm; 300 g
Item model number	BUFKIN
Body Material	leather
Colour	Mississippi Delta Brown
Material Type	Leather
Region of Origin	western-europe
Country Produced In	United Kingdom
Size	L
Item Weight	300 g

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Buffalo Leather Guitar Strap - Buffalo King by Bison Boa - Blade Made in the UK from 100% Buffalo Leather

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