One of the things that I love most about doing this column is the fact that I have full creative control week after week. There is no one telling me what to do or how to do it. As someone who has worked in the creative industry for over a decade now there is nothing better than creating an idea from scratch and watching it come to life. That is exactly what this week’s column is all about. I recently spent some time hanging out with James Covington, the owner of Native BMX, and got the chance to pick his brain about the custom leather seats that he makes. Not very many people are out there working with their bare hands, using timeless techniques and creating truly custom pieces. It’s one of those things that you have to appreciate. In today’s BMX industry parts are and can be about as cookie cutter as they come. Companies literally just take the same parts as other companies and just stamp their name on them and call them their own. To me, there is nothing good about that. The fact that there are people out there like James giving you the option to truly add a personal touch to your bike is what makes me think there is hope for BMX after all. The reason why most of us ever got involved with riding in the first place was to stand out from the crowd and not follow the normal path that was laid out in front of us. Find out more about the whole process and give some respect to someone out there making quality, unique, American-made products that could potentially last a lifetime.

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