What's In a Name? A dive into why we are called 7 Leagues

Our name combines magic, stamina, sustainability, the ocean, the world, and YOU, just like our brand does. Here’s the tale that brings these elements together.

On land, a league is roughly the distance that can be walked in an hour. Different countries designated different length leagues, which might lead one to reflect on their national average stamina or perhaps on their varied landscape, but the principle was the same: an hour’s walk. Seven leagues constituted a day’s march according to the Roman Army. Who wouldn’t long for that full day’s tiring journey to be accomplished in a single step? In European folk and fairy tales, seven league boots conveyed exactly that power to the lucky person who wore them.

So, our name begins with magical seven league boots to propel our customers and ourselves quickly forward into a future of clean manufacturing, inclusive business, local production, and enchantingly beautiful leather and boots. But the name goes deeper. Indigenous elders provide a principle, written into The Great Law of Haudenosaunee Confederacy, that invokes our responsibility to ensure sustainability of the world for the next seven generations.

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations…”

- The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

We accept that too and are building a restorative and regenerative production model that positively impacts businesses, the planet, communities, and people, with our eye on the needs of those future seven generations, as well as our own.

The seven seas is an ancient term that encompasses the known world as reached by water. We know that our waters (see the Small Bite information on the Salish Sea below) are connected to all water, just as we are connected to you. We feel especially close to others seeking to make this world a better place. To our peers in craft production, in social enterprise, in green technology, in the circular economy and the blue economy and in women’s entrepreneurship and to our First Nations hosts on this land, we seek to join forces together across the known world to make the big changes needed.

Finally, we are also a maritime business and a league measures three nautical miles (3.452 land miles / 5.556 kilometres). We are a business that will go that extra mile – or that extra 3.452 X 7 = 24.164 miles – to ensure we make the finest quality leather and boots for you, our customers! When we say our name is 7 Leagues Leather, this is what we mean.