A Chat with Katzkin at the WeAreMopar Charity Fanfest

Dodge Forum learns more about the company that Ram, Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler owners, and even Mopar itself go to for special interior packages.

Katzkin invited me to attend the second annual WeAreMopar charity fan festival at the Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth. In an email, it told me there would be more than 1,600 Mopar vehicles at the event. It said the event would benefit the Homeless Veterans Services of Dallas However, it didn’t give me a heads-up that I would experience déjà vu twice in the same day.

I started my time at the celebration of all things Mopar with an interview of Chris Cassell, the vice president of DFWLX. He told me that Mopar drivers aren’t part of a club or a group, they’re part of a family.

As I walked past rows of custom Chargers, tricked-out Challengers, enhanced Vipers, lifted Jeeps, and personalized Rams, I ran into Levi Lewis, the founder, president, and CEO of the Alamo City LX Modern Mopar non-profit organization. After telling me about his long history of Mopar vehicle ownership (which includes a 1974 Dodge Power Wagon), he let me know more about his 501(c)(7). He said, “We’re a club, but we’re a family first.” That’s when the déjà vu hit for the first time.

I thanked Lewis for his time and made my way to the Katzkin tent. There I met Deb Pollack from its Strategic Partnerships and Marketing Communications division and Doug Johnson, Katzkin’s director of OEM Development. They told me the brother and sister duo of Mitch and Lesley Katz started their leather goods manufacturing company in 1983 and decided to name it Katzkin because their last name was Katz and they were kin to each other. A business that started with a family. Hello again, déjà vu.

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Before meeting with Pollack and Johnson, I knew the broad strokes of what Katzkin does. They proceeded to fill in the gaps between them. Fundamentally, Katzkin offers leather interiors for vehicles that don’t come with them. It has more than 2,500 applications for a wide variety of mid-market vehicles. Whatever is covered in cloth can be recovered with leather. Options range from Katzkin’s Premium leather, which is available in 60 colors, to its Suedezkin synthetic suede to its supple Tuscany leather. Katzkin has licensing agreements with Rawlings, Remington, Realtree, Foose Design, and Outlaw, so if someone wants camo-accented buckets in their Wrangler or Western-themed seats in their Durango, they can get them. Katzkin can also equip a vehicle with its Degreez heated and cooled seats. No matter which leather color/design a Katzkin client chooses, it’s backed by a 3-year/36,000-mile warranty.

Katzkin uses three major distribution methods. One is through new car dealerships. According to Katzkin, its interiors are “trusted by Chrysler for their entire family of vehicles (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM and Fiat) as well as the Ford Motor Company.” If a customer wants a Katzkin leather interior on their vehicle, they can pick it as an option and have the price of it rolled into the price of their new ride. For instance, you can add a Katzkin leather interior to a 2017 Ram 1500 Lone Star Crew Cab for $1,400 (after also upgrading to $295 bucket seats), which breaks down to $18 a month. Overall, retail prices typically range from $1,995 to $2,295 for a 2-row interior. Johnson summed it up by calling Katzkin “the trim level between trim levels.”

Another way of getting a Katzkin interior is at a Carmax dealership. Pre-owned vehicle customers who sign on the dotted line at one of those can get their purchases fitted with a customized Katzkin leather and have the price of that added to the price of their new-to-them set of wheels.

The third way Katzkin gets its transformative hands on vehicle interiors is through its network of authorized professional installers. Thanks to its just-in-time manufacturing system, Katzkin can start on a customer car and return it to them with a new leather interior in 24-28 hours.

Given how many Challengers and Chargers I saw at WeAreMopar, I assumed those two models make up the bulk of Katzkin’s workload. I was wrong. It works on Ram pickups the most because many of them are not trimmed with leather from the factory. Wranglers are a close second. I sat in one with the Realtree-themed seats and noticed that their additional padding was soft without being bulky.

Challengers and Chargers do got a lot of attention from Katzkin, though. The owners of those usually choose two-tone color schemes to replace the factory leather. Many female Katzkin customers have the company brighten up their vehicle cabins with pink leather.

Pollack and Johnson gave me an interesting glimpse into a company that’s a large part of the Mopar world, one made up of people who value speed and customization. Hmmm… Mopar, speed, and customization? I’m starting to feel déjà vu…again.

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Derek Shiekhi

Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.

After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.

While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.

Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.

In addition to writing for a variety of Internet Brands sites, including JK Forum, H-D Forums, The Mustang Source, Mustang Forums, LS1Tech, HondaTech, Jaguar Forums, YotaTech, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts. Derek also started There Will Be Cars on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

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