WTF is a concho?!

Today I received an enormous catalogue from a company called “Ohio Travel Bag”. This company is a distributor of all hardware associated with handbags, luggage, and briefcases– everything from trunk corners (the metal corners on footlockers) to combination locks on briefcases. The catalogue was 314 pages long!

As I skimmed the table of contents, I remembered that I didn’t know the names of any hardware other than zippers and feet. When I talk to manufacturing vendors, I sometimes use embarrassing language like the “thingie”,  the “whatchamabobbie”, ”thingamajig” and my favorite, “doohickey.”  So I decided to pore over every single page to learn the names of everything. Unfortunately my brain couldn’t handle it. 

There were quite a few pages dedicated to something called ’conchos.’ I only found one definition on the internet that matched the concho pictures in the catalogue: A metal usually shell-shaped and silver disk that is used as decoration on clothing and harness. The conchos in the catalog featured bald eagles, skulls, the American flag, and of course, the State of Texas.

I am a little overwhelmed by the thousands of hardware options. Some people in this industry have recommended that I speak to my manufacturer and get them to tell me what they recommend, which seems like a sensible thing to do. I’ll add that to this week’s to-do list. 

Adios!