Your best bet will be to find craftspeople in the BDSM/leather community, especially for any kind of leather equipment. Some are very expensive but some are really surprisingly affordable for handmade, high quality, often custom equipment. In general, handmade leather goods will be sturdier and look nicer wich much more attention to detail. Mass produced, commercially available leather products are generally slapped together ala assembly line style and, in my experience, look, feel and behave like it. The might use glue, for one example, instead of stitching, since it's cheaper and faster but it looks like crap and wears badly. Edges are rarely well finished, the leather is often dry and needs a lot of work to supple up to where i'd want to use it. i've found a few finds worth my money and time just by chance, being at a BDSM store or the kinky section of a sex shop but rarely. Look around your local community, connect with folks in your area and ask where they buy their toys, go to the local fetish events and check out the vendors. The selection on EF of high quality gear has never been extensive and has diminished significantly of late. less