From my last post I’m not even sure than EVERYONE who reads this will know what a Leather Run is. What it is, is a gathering of men (and sometimes women depending on the club sponsoring the run) where there is NO contest, NO producer. Often its connected to the clubs anniversary so they are usually once a year. Its full of camaraderie, fun, dancing drinking and generally just having a great time with those who you enjoy sharing good times with. I have been to two in the past several months. I am associate members of both because I do not live close enough to pledge for full membership. The first was the Trident Knights Anniversary run and the other was the First Coast Leather Society Anniversary (FCLS) run. I also want to interject here that there are women events too with leathermen being welcomed such as the Women’s International Leather Fest (WILF) which I have attended and had a wondeful time,  just not as many.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun I had at both. You are with your chosen leather family and its a long weekend to talk and just have a good time..is there sex? Well DUH..of course..you can have as much or as little as you choose to have. No judgements no drama. I wish more clubs did this instead of focusing their time on expensive contests with HUGE weekends that come with an expensive price tag to attend. BOTH, YES BOTH weekends cost me LESS than 500 dollars. I would go to TEN of these than one LARGE expensive overpriced event where guys are modeling (not wearing) leather and it would still cost me less than one LARGE event where everything you go to is a separate charge. NO thank you!

At the Trident Knights Anniversary Run, which is in August the weekend before Labor day, I was honored with the Associate of the year pin which is the second time. The first was in 2011. There are games and events and many cocktail parties. The theme this year was Hillbillies. The different clubs attending perform skits during the cocktail parties they host. Some of the skits are hilarious and since you are in the host hotel you don’t worry about going anywhere so no driving is involved.

The second event sponsored by the FCLS was also a blast. This happened in September and the hospitality room was exactly that…you are treated like family and the theme this year was Family affair.The scavenger hunt was fun as were the other games. Again you can get all you want in the dungeon that the Tampa Bay leather club set up. There was a bootblack class 101 sponsored by titleholder, Florida Leatherboy, boy Max, and a few others. Not only do you get fed, you drink and have classes and demos. for FREE. WHERE has this gone???

The overhead is low and since there’s no contest there’s no producer and all the headaches that go with trying to drum up contestants. It cost thousands to send contestants to a contest now..BIG business and again as was said in my previous post, that’s NOT what leather is about..it never was it never will be.