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 Naked Leather...more than meets the eye

 By SUSAN JOHNS Staff Reporter

 When I pulled into the Naked Leather parking lot last weekend, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Driving by the store since it opened on Route 1 in Wiscasset last spring, I had often wondered what would be inside a store with that name and the sign showing a woman who, well, isn’t exactly dressed for all this rain we’ve been having.

                                                                        What’s it like in there? What do they sell? How did it come to be here? How’s business?It was time to end the speculation.

What I found were several surprises. For starters, yes, there are leather undergarments for sale, but there are also leather jackets, along with purses, belts and non-leather products including pins, designer t-shirts and Harley Davidson emblems. (Bikers make up about 70 percent of the business, according to owners Mike and Megan Maney.) Mike explained that they would like to display leather jackets in the window, instead of the lingerie that’s on most of the mannequins. But they found that, in the sun’s glare, the dark jackets can’t be seen from the road.                                                                                                                                                       A bigger surprise than the variety of merchandise was the store’s homey atmosphere. The first room with merchandise also serves as the family’s living room.                                                                          When I walked through the door Saturday morning, the couple’s 21-month-old son, Nicholas, was watching a Mickey Mouse cartoon on a large-screen TV. Two polite dogs passed by me, and a three-month-old, orange kitten joined me on the couch.

Toddler-sized riding toys – a train and a highway patrol motorcycle for Nicholas and visiting children to use – were parked in a second room of merchandise.

Megan, 30, and Mike, 41, met about four and a half years ago at a Sturbridge, Mass. stoplight.

"We just kind of flirted next to each other, and we pulled into a gas station, and he asked me if I wanted a job," Megan recalled. Mike had already started Naked Leather in Connecticut, about four years earlier.

As the interview went on, so did the surprises: Naked Leather participates in numerous fund-raisers; and, Mike puts on a free barbeque in the parking lot every Saturday – no store purchase required (he starts cooking around 11 a.m.)

Naked Leather recently sponsored a pre-bike run party, for which part of the proceeds went to the Maine Children’s Cancer Fund. And a store gift certificate is being contributed to this Saturday’s first annual "Ladies Ride for Breast Cancer," benefiting the Breast Cancer Coalition of Maine.

In the course of selling leather at biker rallies around the country over the years, Mike has met a slew of big music names. He sold leather jackets to Meatloaf and each of his band members, and has met members of Hootie and the Blowfish, Lone Star, Trick Pony, Blue Oyster Cult, and Poison. A jacket with those performers’ autographs hangs on display at the store.

There is also a working traffic light picked up at a swap meet and, on the ceiling in the first room, a set of U.S. and world maps. Visitors can place pins on them to mark where they live. The maps just went up last week, but already there were pins on Colorado, Michigan, Kansas and Missouri.

The store has also had customers from Switzerland, Sweden and "a lot from Germany," Mike said.

So, how did Naked Leather end up in Lincoln County, Maine? When the couple was in the area for Megan’s family, a temporary, roadside sale drew an overwhelmingly positive response.

"People begged us, literally begged us, to move here," Mike recalled. "Half of the United Bikers of Maine and 90 percent of Bath Iron Works said you’ve got to move up here." Maine has more Harley Davidson motorcycles per capita than any other state, he said.

The couple is currently looking into a possible Naked Leather satellite store in Rockland.

Aside from tourists and bikers, many area residents come to the store, to shop and just visit, and some bring their kids, Mike said.

"Kids are welcome. We have picnic tables. We really are a destination," he said. "Our customers don’t show up for five minutes. They stay for an hour." The couple say they like it that way, for they consider the customers their friends.

Naked Leather is open Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Phone numbers are 687-2046 or 413-246-9373.

                     has been in business since 1999, and we pride ourselves in

 providing customers with the best-quality products and service at the lowest prices.

 

We take enormous pride in our products, and hope that you'll find something in our

 

catalog or at our store that you like.  We look forward to doing business with you.

 

You can order from us using our online catalog, order over the phone, visit our store

 

in the lovely state of Maine or meet us at one of the many shows we attend!

 All of our leather comes with a no-nonsense FULL two-year warranty. 

 

 

 

We accept the following credit cards:

 

                                                             OUR GOALS

To maintain the highest quality standards for our products.

To provide the best customer service possible.

To  promote an inclusive workplace and help the community  

 

Hello! to you all
On Sunday March 7th at 1pm RIDIN' STEEL will be doing a video shoot highlighting the upcoming benefit runs for the riding season of 2010 at BENTLEYS SALOON in Arundel. There will be music, an all you can eat buffet for $10.00, prizes, raffles and much more.

We want to invite all of you that are planning a run to join us on this day and take advantage of this opportunity to not only plug your run and have it aired on WPME during the RIDIN' STEEL show but to also meet and connect with other riders that share the same interest.

Those of you that we've met this past summer, We encourage you to please attend. If you know of someone that is trying to organize a Charity Ride, please ask them to come as well.

If your not organizing a ride, that's OK! Show up anyway, it'll be a great day to fight cabin fever, meet new people, enjoy good music, food etc... There will be 50/50's, giveaways and RIDIN' STEEL has a very special item to raffle off to help raise money for THE BANDWAGON.

To learn more about THE BANDWAGON go to www.ridinsteel.com

RIDIN' STEEL is committed to highlighting those of you that ride for a cause and doing our part to organize and maximize turnouts for your run, this year we'll also be focusing on promoting the United Bikers of Maine, The Maine Biker Network, and any other biker related organization that's "RIDIN' FOR A CAUSE".

Please help get the word passed around by sharing this information with every Biker you know. Believe it or not, there are those in the general public that are extremely against motorcyclist.

 The bottom line is that the negative stereotype of the biker is very much alive and we must be ever vigilant at changing these attitudes towards us.

Don't forget to watch RIDIN' STEEL every Sunday morning at 11am on WPME. It's the only Biker Show on television committed to helping others.
Please visit our site www.ridinsteel.com regularly to stay informed on what we're up to.