LOUISVILLE, Ky. - To stay open along busy Bardstown Road, you've got to be resilient.

"Normally people come and go on this strip every five years,” Leatherhead owner Nick Boone said. "Luckily we've stayed here since 1967."

“He is genuinely one of the only people who does what he does," long-time customer, Ashleigh Cromer said.

Some famous faces get it too.

"We made dog collars and shoes for Orlando Bloom,” Boone said.

Nicholas Cage was a customer too.

"Made a belt for him,” Boone explained.

"He was real happy with it. He invited us out to the car to have a drink or two. I said ‘no we're working!’ He likes his whiskey."

He made Johnny Depp, Alan Jackson, and Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys guitar straps.

Boone's shop and wife were also in a Jack Harlow music video.

All of that is only part of the story. Through all of the special visits and fun moments, Boone's hands have been at the center of everything, until a time when he suddenly couldn't use them.

"I didn't think anything would hurt me,” Boone said.

During some work on a pond on Boone's farm, he caught a rare virus called Nocardia. It took him from the shop he loved to a hospital room.

"The fumes from the sediment in the bottom of the pond affected my nerves,” Boone said. "I couldn't move. The doctor said it would take four years to five years for my nerves to regenerate."

Boone isn't the kind of guy to wait around. He’s determined to make sure his recovery moves forward every day.

Just like his belts and boots, Nick Boone is built tough.

“I think it just spoke to all of us, of how to continue things you want to do, regardless of life’s challenges and changes,” Cromer said.

No wonder this leathermaker for the stars made on busy Bardstown Road.

“Bardstown Road isn’t Bardstown Road without Leatherhead, if you ask me,” Cromer said.

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