
It took a work stoppage for Will Adler to appreciate the validity of the Platonic proverb that necessity is the mother of invention.
He was an actor in the early 1980s, and a pretty good one, with movie and theater credits to his name as well as guest spots and minor roles on television shows as wide-ranging as “Kojak,” “Vegas” and “Laverne & Shirley.” But then, the Screen Actors Guild went on strike.
“It had to do with residuals and us getting paid every time one of the shows or movies we had a role in was aired,” said Adler, a native of Detroit, Michigan, who had earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his dramatic dreams. “It was a good cause, and in the end the guild prevailed. But the first of my three children was born at the very beginning of the strike. And after not working for some eight months, I needed to find another way to make a buck.”
Adler’s older brother, Bobby, suggested that he buy a bunch of so-called web belts, which came in a variety of colors and had become very popular in New York City fashion circles, and start selling on the boardwalk in the bohemian community of Venice Beach in western Los Angeles.
Adler liked that idea, and it was not long before he and his wife Sandy started doing just that, making enough money with their new business, which they called Billy Belts, to take care of their growing family – and for acting to become more of a hobby for Adler than a living.
His big break came when a buyer from a department store put in an order for 5,000 belts. In time, Adler expanded from a trio of workers operating out of a garage to 150 employees in a factory.
A decade later, he sold the business. Then in 1996, he left La-La Land for the greener and most times rainier locale of Eugene, Oregon.
Six years after arriving in the city where the University of Oregon is situated – and where Nike was born – Adler started making belts and other accessories for the athletic footwear and apparel giant that had only recently gotten into golf. Soon after, some of the biggest names in that sport, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy among them, were wearing Adler’s wares, the most popular of which was a belt called G-Flex. Made largely of leather, it also featured a stretch formulation that enabled the accessory to move with golfers as they twisted in their swings. And the product was soon being sold at the finest resorts and clubs in the country, among them Pebble Beach, Augusta National and Bandon Dunes, as well as in big-box behemoths such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and PGA Tour Superstore.
“I had met several people associated with Nike in Eugene, and one of them, a top executive at the company named Mindy Grossman had suggested that if I could Nike-ize my belts and make them a piece of equipment designed to enhance performance, I might have a chance of working with them.”
That is exactly what he did.
“What started as a licensing agreement in 2004 grew into a $25 million business for us,” said Adler, now 70 years old and still married to Sandy.
Then in 2005, Adler started Will Leather Goods, offering a selection of premium belts, backpacks, billfolds, satchels and totes through that venture. In their marketing literature, company officials described those as being “rooted in the past, designed for the present and built for the future.” Consumers liked the stylish look and rugged feel of these lifestyle products, to say nothing of their durability, with Adler backing each item with a lifetime guarantee. And business boomed.
Among the items available from Will Leather Goods are belts and wine bottle holders.
Today, Will Leather Goods wares are being sold in places such as Nordstrom, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue as well as online (willleathergoods.com). Adler even started to add outlets of his own, with the first one opening, quite appropriately, in Venice Beach. There is also one at the Fifth Street Public Market in downtown Eugene, housed in a reconditioned railroad boxcar. In addition to offering off-the-shelf goods through those channels, he also provides embossing, silk-screen printing and corporate cresting for those customers who want a bit of customization.
Through Will Leather Goods, Adler also collaborated with Nike to create leather uppers for its Air Max, Air Force I and Dunks sneakers.
“I am very enthusiastic about what we are doing as a company, and what I am doing,” Adler said. “And I want to keep going into my 80s and 90s.”
“My father was a buyer for Hughes & Hatcher, which sold better men’s clothes. And his father was a salesperson for Saks Fifth Avenue in Detroit. As for my brother Bobby, he got into selling clothes as well.” – Will Adler
In many ways, it is not at all surprising that Adler found his way into this business.
“My father was a buyer for Hughes & Hatcher, which sold better men’s clothes,” he said. “And his father was a salesperson for Saks Fifth Avenue in Detroit. As for my brother Bobby, he got into selling clothes as well. But his customer base was faster, more for the hip-hop and hipster crowds, with lots of jeans and Italian clothing.”

Growing up, Adler primarily was interested in the theater. And after graduating from high school, he moved to Chicago to study acting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which was home to the renowned Goodman Theatre.
Adler said he became a member of the Screen Actors Guild shortly after graduating with his BFA and started taking roles in theaters around the U.S. and Canada.
“Then I was asked to audition for the role of Bill Bibbit in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ” he said. “I didn’t get the part, but the people representing me at the William Morris Agency asked me to stay on in L.A., promising me that they would start sending me to auditions.
“I had a full life of being in the theater, on television and in some movies,” he added. “And I was making a living. But then the strike happened.”
Not long after that, brother Bobby came out west for a fashion-industry trade gathering called the MAGIC show, which was held back then in Los Angeles (before eventually moving to Las Vegas).
“He suggested that I join him there, and that is when he gave me the idea about selling the web belts,” Adler said.
More than 40 years later, Adler looks back with pride at what he was able to build from that suggestion.
“And the funny thing is, I am still getting residuals from some of the acting I did, which was what that strike was all about,” he said.
Now, that’s a Hollywood story.
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