Alligator leather. It's bold. It's fancy. It's expensive. It’s also the result of, and driving force behind, a massive conservation effort—and one of the toughest crafts in tanning. That’s why we brought Christy Gilmore of American Tanning and Leather on the Shoecast, to explore how her family built a U.S. tannery that takes wild-caught alligator hides from raw material to finished leather, and what far too many people misunderstand about the industry.

Christy traces AMTAN’s history from its roots as a 1923 fur-buying business to its modern operation in Griffin, Georgia, explains how alligator skins are graded and matched for cowboy boots, and gets deep into how regulated harvesting, farming, and habitat protection support wild populations and provide incentives for landowners to preserve wetlands.