About Bird Trouble

Welcome to Bird Trouble, a small but mighty leather goods brand based out of a cozy home HQ workshop. This brand is ran by a single minority woman, Alexz Sandoval, also a self-taught leather worker. Bird Trouble is a grass-roots built business that invests our customer’s money back into the business.


We are currently navigating a small scale production. While a limited number of products are produced in the HQ workshop, Alexz also works with a production team that is based out of the south side Chicago, IL. Collaborating is a delight and we can create more products for our customers.

Each part of creating our products is done by hand. Leather is hand cut, sometimes hand dyed, holes are hand punched, adhesive is added by hand, rivets are applied by press + hand. The leather is sewn using trusty industrial sewing machines with very close attention. Our online orders are packaged by hand in our home workshop HQ and shipped to our customers all around the world.

The quality of our leathers are top-notch and have a low environmental impact since leather is a byproduct of the farm industry. A high quality made, well-loved leather product can last for many years and be pass down as heirlooms. Did you know that vegetable tanned leathers are biodegradable? Vegetable tanned methods use tree bark and natural materials… no chemicals!


Bird Trouble had a 2 year pop-up workshop in the West Town Chicago small boutique, AD HOC. Bird Trouble also had a Chicago mobile pop up store ran out of a 1978 Dodge Sportsman RV. Most recently, Bird Trouble had a retail store / showroom in West Logan Square Chicago for 3 years. We are now solely ran out of a home workshop HQ where your orders are also shipped from. Having an at home business model is more affordable for this small business, and that is made possible through our customer’s online and retailer purchases.


About the Founder, Designer, and Artisan

Alexz is the grand-daughter to two Mexican immigrant grandparents who sewed for a living so she’s lived around sewing machines her whole life. She’s the daughter of two Mexico-born resilient parents: an adventurous father who finds solitude in taking things apart to put them back together, and a careful mother who finds joy in serving others.

Alexz began designing and sewing handbags and accessories from repurposed leather and thrifted fabric in 2009 for first online Bird Trouble shop on Etsy. It simply started as a creative outlet and a way to make money while working a full-time job.

Little did she know she was gathering up 20+ years of experience designing and sewing, a college certificate in Fashion Design, and DIY side hustling. It was as early as age 14 that Alexz found interest in sewing and punk rock clothing as forms of expression and art. Then as early as 16 when she discovered she could make extra money online with her art.


Through out her travels, many lifestyles, day jobs, and experience collaborating with other creatives Alexz gained the confidence, knowledge, and drive to design, create, sell quality products, and turn Bird Trouble into her full-time job. Her entrepreneur mission is to grow her brand journey but still maintain a lifestyle that gives her freedom of personal and professional choices.

Bird Trouble believe’s you have many choices when it comes to buying a bag so we understand the magnitude of customers coming together to support a small business designer brand. Thank you for being here, pumping fuel into Alexz’s dream, and helping Bird Trouble thrive to continue the mission of sharing quality sustainable leather products.