Meet the Maker

Anna Rodgers

Founder, Long Creek Leather Company

I was born and raised in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, surrounded by everything the outdoors has to offer and naturally drawn to it from the start. A lot of the credit for that goes to my Daddy for introducing me to hunting at a young age — and to my Mama for letting her little girl do it.

It was almost as if I was born with the obsession — I fell in love with hunting right away.

I killed my first deer at seven years old and never really looked back. To this day, I still feel the same excitement I felt when my Daddy would pick me up from school and we’d head to ‘the hills’ to go hunting.

A few years later, turkey hunting entered the picture — and that’s when I realized what the stretch of March 15th through May 1st would mean to me every year.

It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain and impossible to replicate. The kind of excitement that sits in the back of your mind year-round and never really leaves.

If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s like an incurable illness.

And I was undoubtedly diagnosed on April 2nd, 2022 — the morning I killed my first solo turkey.

The Story Behind Long Creek Leather Company

That same love for the outdoors is what started Long Creek Leather Company.

Long Creek is the name of a run of water that cuts through a piece of property in the hills of Holmes County, Mississippi. It’s a place that holds a lot of meaning to me. It’s where I killed my first deer, where I killed my first solo turkey, and where I hope my son will one day experience those same moments for himself.

That place became the foundation for the name.

Over the years, I had owned several turkey totes and mouth call holders, but none of them were quite what I wanted. They worked — but there was never anything special about them.

So I decided to make the ones I wished I had.

I built my own turkey tote and a mouth call pouch that fit exactly what I was looking for.

And I bet you can guess what I made them out of.

Leather.

They weren’t perfect in the beginning, but I found something I genuinely enjoyed doing. I made a few for friends, then a few for other people, and before long it slowly started turning into something more — beginning as a small operation right out of my garage.

Why it Matters

What started as a way to build better gear for myself quickly turned into something I cared deeply about for another reason.
I realized that creating something for someone else — something they’ll carry into the woods, rely on, and make memories with — brings a kind of gratification that makes the work worth it.

Every piece I make is personal to me because I know it will become part of someone else’s hunt, someone else’s story, and someone else’s time outdoors.

And that matters.

Because good gear isn’t just something you use.

It’s something that goes with you through the moments you remember most.

And if it’s built right, it only gets better with time.