Detroit man honed leather-making skills during long prison sentence

The resounding clang of a hammer striking a dining table fills the air as you walk into the west-side Detroit home of 60-year-old Floyd Hampton.

Hampton, who spent 25 years behind bars, now crafts custom leather products from his home. On a recent summer day, a visitor could find Floyd Hampton carefully punching holes into a leather strap, one by one.

Hampton was incarcerated for armed robbery in his late teens and served 25 years of a 30- to 100-year sentence. While at the former Riverside Correctional Facility site in Ionia, Hampton honed his leather-making skills through a rehabilitation program offered there.

Amid the challenges of prison life, mastering the art of handcrafted leather goods became Hampton's sanctuary.

“Learning to make leather items helped me overcome many obstacles while incarcerated,” Hampton said. “Being able to create different leather goods provided me with a mental freedom from the prison environment that I had been in for so long. I could escape the hardships of jail by focusing on my creative spirit and infusing my energy into the work I was creating.”

Hampton said he learned a lot during his incarceration.

“The young people out there, and anyone else that is not making good choices and not thinking about where your life will be in five years, they need to understand that every choice they make will have an outcome that they and their family will have to live with for the rest of their lives.”

In addition to leather belts, Hampton has learned to create dog collars, harnesses, leashes, purses, clutch purses, briefcases, wallets and gun holsters. He recently made two customized dog collars for a friend's Boerboel , a large mastiff-type breed.

“Other inmates would often tell me during my incarceration, ‘Hey Hamp, if you don’t make a business from making leather items when you get out, that will be a crime on its own.’ That motivated me to keep pursuing what I had learned while in jail."

The leather-making program at Riverside Correctional Facility ended shortly before Hampton's release in 2009.

Through the program, he found a way to adjust to life outside of prison.

But Hampton had to pause his leather products and clothing business, "Mony Line," during a two-year battle with prostate cancer. The illness took a significant toll on him.

He is now focusing on the business and being a positive role model for his 10-year-old son, Floyd D. Hampton II.

He has been cancer-free for six years now.

“While healing from cancer, the hope of being able to work on leather products and restart my business gave me a reason to work hard on my physical recovery and rehabilitation so I could be able to get back to work,” Hampton said. “I hope people understand that everyone has setbacks in life. You just need to have the courage to step up and overcome yours.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit man honed leather-making skills during long prison sentence