Two of us, a lot of dogs, and a drawer full of leads

We are Katie and Dan Collier, a husband-and-wife team from Newport, South Wales, and the faces behind Constroll.

Where it starts

It starts with dogs. Katie has spent her whole working life caring for them – first as a dog groomer, later with the RSPCA. Dan is the one out in the weather, and our own dogs spend hours exploring the countryside with him.

Like a lot of dog owners, we had ended up with more leads and collars than we could count. They filled a drawer, then the garage, and eventually the car. And still none of them felt quite right. Some frayed. Some were the wrong length. Others simply didn’t have the strength, the comfort or the handling we wanted at the other end of a walk.

Everything changed when we found BioThane at a Christmas market. We fell for it straight away – the strength of it, how practical it is, and the colours. After a year of talking about ideas and projects and what-ifs, we realised the thing we kept looking for needed to be made, and shared with dog owners across the UK.

So here we are – possibly at the beginning of this, possibly already somewhere in the middle. Either way we’re genuinely excited to share it, and to put a little of you into every piece we make.

How they’re made

Every Constroll lead and collar is ethically handcrafted in Newport, South Wales. There is no mass-production factory and no third party quietly making these somewhere else. Every stage is done by hand: measured and cut to size, assembled with every rivet pressed home securely, finished with the chosen fittings, then inspected properly before it is packed.

Everything starts as premium BioThane: a polyester webbing core with a waterproof coating bonded over it. It has the strength of the webbing inside and a surface that shrugs off water, mud and river swims. It doesn’t soak, doesn’t rot, doesn’t hold the smell of a wet dog, and wipes clean with a damp cloth. The straps are welded and riveted rather than sewn, so there is no thread anywhere to fray or rot.

The fittings are metal, chosen to suit the strap, and they go on last before a piece is checked over. Your parcel includes an invoice confirming the one-year warranty that comes with everything we make.

Nothing is made before you order it, which is why there’s a 3–5 working day wait – the BioThane is still on the roll when your order comes in.

Two ways to order

The Everyday Range. Ready-made designs in our favourite colour combinations, ordered straight from the shop. Pick a size, pick a colour, and we make yours. Standard leads are 1.2m.

The Bespoke Package. If you want to design your own, get in touch rather than ordering online. A bespoke piece can be a single colour or a two-tone combination, with your choice of rivet colour, fittings and accessories – and a lead length other than the standard 1.2m. Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll work it out with you.

What we won’t do

We won’t tell you a collar will stop your dog pulling, because no collar does that. We won’t put a fake countdown on the basket. And we won’t sell you something that isn’t right for your dog – if a harness suits you better, we’d genuinely rather tell you that than take the order.

If you email us, you get one of the two people who made it.

– Katie and Dan