With an origin story that began with making a custom shoulder holster catering to Chicago Police detectives that later skyrocketed to fame with Sonny Crockett, Galco has been the quiet force in the American gun community that you never knew you knew. 
 
It was in 1969 that Richard N. Gallagher formed The Famous Jackass Leather Company as a small family business in Chicago. The custom leather shop originally specialized in items ranging from sheepskin jackets to handbags and wallets to hats, with everything made on site. While some leather holsters were offered from time to time, it was in the early 1970s that an early H-frame harness combo shoulder holster and magazine carrier, crafted from hand-polished saddle leather and harness-stitched with six-cord waxed linen thread for durability, became a local hit.

Dubbed the Jackass Rig and hand-molded for then-popular carry guns such as the 1911 and Browning Hi-Power, it was advertised for $29.95 in "The Blue Light," a journal for Chicago PD officers, and soon orders for hundreds of the shoulder holsters were placed. 
 

 
The hard-wearing holster launched The Famous Jackass Leather Company on a trajectory that saw it re-brand as the Great American Leather Company, or Galco International, LTD, in 1980, and move to Phoenix, Arizona shortly after.

With former Chicago PD detectives such as Dennis Farina working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, it was logical that the Jackass Rig would show up on screen sooner or later. When Mann's "Miami Vice" hit the small screen with a bang in 1984, its lead character, Don Johnson's Rolex-and-pastel-clad fictional Detective Sergeant James “Sonny” Crockett, carried first a SIG P220, then a Bren Ten, and later a S&W 645.

He did it all in a modified Jackass Rig, which, in honor of the show's popularity, became the Miami Classic in Galco's catalog. 
 

 
Then, of course, came legions of other action movies where Galco rigs appeared, including the "Die Hard" franchise, "3000 Miles to Graceland," "Face Off" (yes, that crazy small of the back 1911 rig was Galco's), and "The Expendables."
 

 
However, you don't have to be a 1970s CPD detective or Hollywood producer to get your own Galco. We took a trip to Phoenix recently to check out how the company makes holsters and all sorts of other accessories.
 

Behind the scenes at Galco

While Galco makes thousands of holsters every year from synthetics such as advanced thermoplastics like Kydex and injection-molded polymers – indeed, the company has been in that market since the 1990s – it is Galco's work with premium steerhide for which it is probably best known. They go through as much as 868,000 square feet of leather a year – that's 20,000 steers. 
 

 
Then comes the hand fitting. Skilled leather craft workers split the leather, imprint product codes, clean edges, then glue, stamp, rivet, and sew the holsters together. Then comes hours of burnishing and painting edges, hand molding to fit, and finishing. 
 

The end results are stunning.
 

 

We thank Galco for all their help and assistance with our factory tour.