From Houma to Singapore

As soon as we landed in Singapore and arrived at The Raffles Hotel we were met by a man name Check, a business contact of one of Jason's patients. Check buys alligator skin from a cajun couple out of Houma, processes the skins and then turn arounds and sells the processed skins to major brands such as Gucci and Prada. We had no clue what we were supposed to do with Check, but Jason's patient insisted that we meet up with him since we were going to be in Singapore. We are so glad we did, it was such an interesting experience and so nice to experience Singapore from a mutual contact. Check drove us to the northern part of the island and took us on a tour of his factory. We were able to see the step by step process of how he receives the alligator hides freshly skinned and packed in ice straight from Houma, Louisiana, to the finished skins and purses he sends off to such labels as Hermes. The standards and regulations required by the Singaporean government mandate that the factory be spotless and precisely managed, adding to the already outstanding overhead for this production. It's a little easier to understand why the price of such products is so expensive. But when Check explained to Jason and me that he could sell a bag wholesale for $2000, a shop could turn around and sell it for $5000 and then Prada could stamp it with their label and sell it for $50,000, all being from the same skin, I have to say I felt a little silly for ever having bought name brand products.