Revelation in Leather

Chad Geis and the team at Surgeon Revelation are redefining what it means to be a surgeon – one accessory at a time.

Article by Michael DeVault | Images courtesy of Surgeon Revelation

It’s hardly where you’d expect to find the mind behind one of the hottest new brands to come out of north Louisiana since Duck Dynasty. Chad Geis is sitting in a modified log skidder, a massive, multi-ton piece of machinery he uses for operations that promote and enhance forest growth.

But once you hear the story of how he came up with the concept of Surgeon, a manufacturer of high-quality leather accessories and bags Chad sells through the website www.surgeonrevelation.com. it’s the “revelation” part that underscores why his position at the controls of this beast of a machine makes perfect sense. It was one of these industrial monsters that led to his transformation, as he tells it.

“It really was this simple,” Chad tells BayouLife, of the moment just a few years ago when the idea first struck him. “I was in the shop working on one of our machines that was broken. I was dirty, tired and covered in oil, really questioning what I was doing and my significance in life. You see, I left a very professional and respectable corporate job several years earlier to start this business. At that particular moment, my life did not look how I thought it would, when I resigned from a job many people would have given anything to have. I remember thinking, I could close this business, return to school and I could become a doctor, as that is a very respectable career. Maybe, I could even become a surgeon. After all, I’m pretty good at fixing that are broken.”

As I stared at the thousands of hoses, wires, gears and individual parts that made up the broken machine I was working to repair, I thought to myself, “I already am a Surgeon, I’m just a machine Surgeon.”
That was the revelation. Over his career in forestry, Chad had developed a deep knowledge of the intricate workings of numerous machines. He knew how to troubleshoot the machine problems, how to repair or replace damaged components, and when a machine was simply beyond repair. The skills he had developed were very to those of a surgeon, only his patients weren’t flesh and blood, they were metal and hydraulic fluid. The word “surgeon” got under his skin.

“That name — Surgeon — rolled around in my head for a decade,” he says. “What it started to become as it grew was a soul-searching event.”

Chad a brand. — a brand he and his wife wanted to become an outward expression and an internal reminder of the choice everyone can make to positively impact the world through their unique gifts and the knowledge we are all created with a purpose. What he didn’t have was a product to attach it to.

Meanwhile, he continued to build his forest management business, owning and operating equipment used in establishing new stands of timber and the growth promotion of existing forests. During that time, he met a lot of people and he started to notice a habit each of them shared. “Two things you find out in the first moment you meet a person: what’s their name and what they do,” he says. “Subconsciously, what we’re doing whether we realize it or not, is sizing up the person. We’re judging the kind of person we think they are based on societal perceptions.”

Along the way, people tend to take those judgements and use them to categorize and organize the people they’ve met. Certain categories receive a higher position than others, he realized, and that’s where “surgeon” came back into the story. “We give a level of respect to a surgeon, because we know what it takes to become one, as well as the impact such an occupation has on other people’s lives,” he says. “There are years of sacrifice, hard work and developing skills that make us sit back and admire them.”

Very quickly, “surgeon” became about more than just medical elites for him. Chad understood that the word could have a profound impact on people in all walks of life, and Surgeon took its next steps. “It’s about recognizing the work people put into what they do and saying, ‘It’s not about a title,’” Chad explains. “It’s about how you go about living your life. When you do something well, when you do it to the best of your abilities, it makes a difference.”

In that recognition, Chad believes others are able to profoundly impact the lives of the people they encounter. That recognition isn’t just reserved for the highly educated or those with lucrative careers in skilled industries.

He recounts a story from a few months ago when he stopped at a travel center late one night, (“You know, the big fancy western-themed ones in Texas,” Chad says). There he encountered a young man cleaning the restroom. It struck him how clean it was and the care the young man put into his work. He paused and complemented the individual, who he found was working to attend college to become a physical therapist. The attendant thanked him and stated that no one had ever before taken note of him or what he was doing, and he really appreciated the word of encouragement. “The whole message of Surgeon is a little abstract until you start applying it,” Chad says. “You make our world and the lives of others better by applying a sense of God-given purpose to everything you do.”

About the bag, and there is a lot to say about the bag that launched the brand, but we’ll get to that, even the first product itself has a backstory. Chad, you see, is a private pilot who’s spent a lot of time in airplanes or hanging out with other pilots. Each pilot carried some version of a satchel or briefcase, and each one was vastly different. “If you were to dig through someone’s bag, you’ll find out what their life is like real quick,” he says with a laugh. A person’s bag, which Chad occasionally refers to as a “life bucket,” can be orderly, neat, chaotic or a mix of it all. The bag can contain their work, their personal life, and any number of other items that illuminate a part of who they are. Sitting with one of his pilot friends, Chad had another revelation. “I thought, ‘Why not put it on a bag?’ It was that complicated,” he says.

Surgeon had the beginnings of its first product — a messenger-style laptop bag, crafted from leather of the highest quality and 18 oz. waxed canvas. Sourcing vendors and selecting the best materials proved to be grueling for Chad and his wife. They designed a bag, looked at prototypes, and then made their first order. That’s where the story takes a fork in the road that, usually, leads small startups to failure. “I’m a little bit OCD and a perfectionist in everything I do,” Chad says. “My parents raised me to do whatever I’m going to do the best I can — or not do it at all.”

As he tells it, Surgeon ordered 80 of the first bags and, almost immediately, he knew they’d never sell a one of them. Somewhere in the process after placing the initial order, Chad and his wife met several individuals who informed them there were better ways to do it, and those people also made valuable suggestions. “We gave them all away,” he says of the first batch of Surgeon Revelation bags.

The bags went to clients of his forestry business, friends, associates, even people he met on the street — quite literally.

There is a man known only as “Catfish,” and he busies himself fashioning crosses out of grapevines on a street corner in Shreveport. Always sitting on the same corner, Catfish is there, making his crosses and distributing them to people who inquire about them. The crosses exhibited an attention to craftsmanship that impressed Chad, but Catfish himself impressed him even more. He explained to Chad, how several years ago he lost his wife and daughter, and he felt God had led him to do this for people. Catfish has been told people have his crosses in countries all over the world. “What he’s doing out on that corner, making these crosses, minding his own business, doing what he can to pay his bills and make something for someone else?” Chad says. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a surgeon.”

Today, Catfish has a Surgeon bag, compliments of Chad and the Surgeon team.

He knew they were starting to build something with a lot of potential, and he knew that potential needed work. Part of the work lay with the design and features of the bags themselves. “Everybody that received one saw it and said the bags were amazing,” he says. “But there were enough little things about it that I knew we still needed to work on it. I wasn’t going to start a new business venture with something that wasn’t my best.”

He went back to the drawing board, figuratively speaking at first. He’d see a bag he liked and take from it the design elements that stood out. Then they’d make a prototype. Along the way, the drawing board became literal.

One afternoon, he came into his office and noticed an employee passing an idle moment doodling a drawing of toolbox in the workshop. Philip Elliot was a former Marine who had once been in a Sunday school class Chad taught years ago. He’d since joined Chad’s forestry operation, but as Chad stood over the young man, watching him draw the toolbox with great detail, he knew there were better uses of Philip’s talents. “That was the initial open door to bring Philip into the bag business,” Chad says. Philip has an “über-obsession” with detail and ultra-functionality, which is evident in each of the products offered by Surgeon.

Through a process working with new suppliers and visiting the actual leather tanneries, they first replaced the original material, a widely used chromium/vegetable leather. Combination chemical/oil-tanned leather has the potential to leave behind residues on clothing and car seats, hardly the impression one wants to leave after a power business meeting. Instead, they moved to a 100% vegetable-tanned, full-grain leather, a change that came by way of Anna, another member of the team, who works remotely from Italy. “When you use 100% vegetable-tanned leather, the lifespan is far longer than anything you can get by any other process,” Chad explains.

Additional innovations followed — more pockets, a better strap — and with each iteration, they moved closer to the product they knew they could make. Finally, the finished bag arrived and the brand launched.
Philip explains the logic behind their products. At the heart, it’s a dogged attention to utility. Every feature has to have a purpose behind it. “We love pockets around here,” Philip says. “We’re pocket-crazy, because they’re how you organize your things.”

What at first seems like a simple statement really grows as Philip unpacks the concept behind the tiny, zippered pocket that’s just the perfect size for a handful of breath mints — though that’s not what that pocket is for. “When I go on photo shoots, or if I’m moving photos or files between computers at work or home, I use SD cards,” Philip explains. “They’re small, they pack in a lot of storage, and they’re fast. But they’re also easy to lose or break.”

Philip realized they needed a pocket that was big enough to hold a few SD cards but not so big that you thoew in your cell phone, a set of headphones or the multitool you carry with you all the time. That way, the SD cards were accessible and protected against both loss and damage.

There are pockets for business cards, pens, a laptop, a notebook and a myriad of paper. Whatever the need, chances are there’s a pocket.

That same attention to utility drove the creation of their other products, including one of the most popular of Surgeon’s creations: the Tablet Organizer.

Originally called the Workbook, the leather Tablet Organizer is aimed squarely at professionals in the field. Inside the fully zippered enclosure, a paper note tablet on the right-hand side is situated perfectly for note-taking. Behind it, there is space for keeping papers organized. Opposite, there are spots, for business cards, pens and pencils, and the kinds of accoutrement one expects to find in a portfolio. What lies behind that, though, is truly innovative. The Tablet Organizer doesn’t get its name from the notepad on the right. The name comes from the padded, zippered compartment behind the left-hand side, perfectly designed to hold a tablet PC or small laptop computer. Finished with optional handles, the Tablet Organizer is the perfect “grab and dash” for a businessman, a salesman, a plumber, or even in the field, working the northern Louisiana’s Piney Woods.

Which is kind of the point of the brand.

It’s not just for the ultra-chic or wealthy. Surgeon is about every surgeon from all walks of life. And that’s why they’re branching out into other accessories, as well.

On the horizon, Philip touts a number of new and exciting products they’re about to launch. A full leather women’s tote with key attention to organization, a durable yet rich looking waxed canvas and leather duffle bag, a key wallet to holds your keys as well as your cards and cash. They have a front-pocket wallet/card holder, as well, and redesigned straps for some of their signature products.

Chad is quick to share credit with his team for the rapid growth of the brand and its list of products. But he’s also not one who easily forgets the impact people have had on his own story as he seeks to empower people like Philip and Anna, and their social media coordinator, Lindsey, to grow in their pursuits, both professional and personal. It’s a lesson he learned from Carl Milko, an old friend of his. Chad credits Carl with making one of the biggest differences in his adult life.

After college, Chad went to work selling products used in the forestry industry. He developed a reputation for friendliness, customer loyalty and knowing how to treat his clients. Along the way, he met Carl, and when it came time for Chad to step out with his first business of his own, it was Carl who stepped up. Chad, who was in business with his brother Dallas for many years, had the drive, ideas and the ability. What they lacked was capital. “Carl signed a million dollar note to assist in the growth of their forestry business,” Chad says. “We offered Carl and his business partners, Bill McAlister and Jim Carlton, a percentage of the business, which Carl turned down. We also offered a portion of the profits, also declined. Beyond paying the note on the loan, Carl and his partners had no demands of Chad. “He never wanted anything in return for it. He just wanted to make sure that, one day, I did it for someone else. He was paying it forward. That’s a key element of what set me on the path to making a difference in people’s lives.” For Chad, success isn’t about the number of products the company sells or the amount of dollars they make on each one. “If I can make a positive difference in someone’s life, and who knows what the effect of that will be, then that’s a measure of success for me,” he says. “It may not be the world’s measure of success, but it’s mine.”