A Super Bowl Gift With Texas Charm

M.L. Leddy's crafts custom saddles for the AFC, NFC champions

A legendary Texas leatherworker is crafting special gifts for the two teams that will compete in the Super Bowl.

M.L. Leddy's is handcrafting a custom saddle personalized with the team and NFL logos for each owner.

"What better way to show Fort Worth than to do something as exciting as and creative as and as handmade as an M.L. Leddy's saddle?" said Mark Dunlap, M.L. Leddy's general manager.

What makes an M.L. Leddy's saddle special?

"There's the silver work, the specific leathers that we use," Dunlap said. "We hand-select the leathers that are going on these saddles."

It took three months to design the saddles and a total of 125 hours to make them.

"All of that work is done by hand," Dunlap said. "There's nothing that's machine done on this saddle at all."

They are safely tucked away until a big reveal Thursday at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel.

Craftsmen with decades of experience worked on the saddles on the second floor of M.L. Leddy's.

"The tooling on the fender is the re-creation of the Super Bowl trophy, so you'll see the stadium and the ball at the top," Dunlap said.

The saddles are nearly complete, missing only the teams' logos, which will be added after the conference championship games this weekend.

Each saddle would retail for about $12,500, a cost M.L. Leddy's absorbed.

But the custom saddles will probably only be mementos, Dunlap said.

"I doubt they'll ever see the back of a horse," he said.

The two saddles will be displayed at the team's hotels and then at Cowboys Stadium.

Contact Us