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 (207) 687-2046 or 413-246-9373.

 

    Aria v. New York, NY 10/5/2009

Fourth of July Weekend = Small Town America
U-Turns on Route 1 = Is That a Gay Fetish Store?

I'm a firm believer that only by wandering and exploring without a map can you find the real gems on your trips. Well, there's not a lot of wandering in costal Maine, there's only one main road, but who would have ever thought we'd end up spending out 4th of July with Hell's Angels at a leather store for a bikini bike wash?

Venue:
Naked Leather has this purple and red sign hanging along Route 1, with a somewhat naked person on it, and it definitely draws eyes. We passed it, I missed it, and a u-turn was pulled--rather dangerously--so as to get a second look. A fetish shop? A gay fetish shop? A leather/BDSM/Dominatrix/sex shop??? In Wiscasset??! We were so confused the only way to find out was to venture inside.

The first thing I noticed was the big screen TV, and by big, I'm talking 60" or so... A living room in a sex shop? Okay, not the first time I've seen this, but with kids toys? Interesting. And, is that a kitchen back there? Do I smell cookies? Now this is just getting downright odd. Or confusion, for all it was worth, was well established. What looked like a house from the outside, was indeed one. A home and a store in one.

Meg and Mike, the owners and operators of Naked Leather live in their store: the living room is the entry way and cash register, what used to be a bedroom is a showroom. The kitchen is still that, but the open dining room houses their four-poster bed and upstairs is the office and kid's room. The walls are lined with leather pieces, everything from bomber jackets to biking jackets, lingerie and women's clothing, some chains and whips, and everything a biker could want or need.

Mike jokes (a lot, about a lot of things) that when people ask if they're a bike shop or a lingerie shop, he say "well, bike, but we sell just as much of the sexiness, and it sells well." He also says that he can have breakfast in the kitchen with his wife.... and I'll just let your mind wander with that one.

Meg and Mike are good people, funny, inappropriate, welcoming and friends with all sorts of bikers. Overall it's a great experience that you won't want to miss. We liked--or at least were so intrigued by it--we made our way back for seconds during the 4th. The bikini bike wash, that yes I was going to participate in, got rained out but there were still more than happy to welcome us for some beer, some hot tubbing, some burgers and non-stop Spongebob (for the kid, obviously, not us, we weren't that rebellious).

Selection:
Helmets, jackets, gloves, pants, chaps--assless or otherwise--add some corsets and chains and some sex toys and you've got Naked Leather. The walls are lined with racks and you can try anything on. The leather's of good grade, and called "naked leather" because it's mostly untreated and not blended. It'll last you a long time, that's for sure, and if you're so inclined to get on a bike up in Maine as most people seem to be during the summer, this store will deck you out right.

Naked Leather.com can be found at most major bike rallies and smaller ones in the North East and along the Eastern Seaboard, if you see them be sure to stop in and say hi. They'll probably invite you over for some BBQ and beers, then try and take you out later that night--get you all trashy and trashed. Like I said, it's the unplanned that's the most fun.

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

                                                             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