Leather has been a powerful aphrodisiac since the Marquis De Sade first cracked his whip. Leather coats, cases, bags, belts, boots, britches, shoes not only feel great, they smell good—a strong incentive to buy. But the most of all aromatic leathers with the most seductive scent for generations have been baseball gloves and catchers’ mitts made by Rawlings out of “heart of the hide” leather.

Rawlings is a one-word megabrand that conjures up visions of not just the grand old game for hard-core baseball buffs. The name whisks just about everyone back to their childhood, sandlot and Little League days. And if they were good, a spot on a high school or college team. Or if they were great, a shot at pro ball. And if they were a one-in-a-million athlete, a berth on a major league team.

In 1999, a fourth-generation Italian luxury leather goods designer and his shrewd, marketing savvy American wife, had an idea that tapped into this Niagara of nostalgia, instantaneous brand recognition and good feelings toward Rawlings. They would create a “forever collection” of leather personal, business and travel goods made from the same leather used for the baseball gloves. Same color, same smell that hopefully will generate the same emotional connection people have toward their old mitts and gloves. Who of sane mind would ever throw away their Rawlings gloves with that tough pocket and web that made all those game-saving catches?

The couple—Gian Paolo Lombardo and Ellen Hart—stepped up to the plate with a solid batting average. His family has made high-quality Italian leather goods in Rome since 1924. Lombardo has designed leather luggage, handbags, business cases for such globally recognized labels as  Tumi/ Schlessinger, Orient Express, St. John, Anne Klein and Hartmann Luggage. Hart is said to have developed the first collection of business cases and accessories for the executive businesswoman in the early ‘90s, long before most women were toting then-heavy laptops.

She and Lombardo created a collection of travel products for professional women called Veronica Hart and sold it to Hartmann Luggage; she stayed on to run it as director of sales and marketing for the women’s division. In their collaborations they learned some powerful lessons in carving out a niche in the fiercely competitive luggage world. You must compete on originality and quality, not price, or you’re shark bait. Six years ago, they secured a license from 120-year-old plus Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. to make Rawlings brand luggage.

It wasn’t a cakewalk. Hart recalls that her daughter borrowed her Rawlings glove for a game but came home with someone else’s Spaulding glove. “I was so upset,” she recalls. “Even though I wasn’t a baseball fan, that incident reminded me of what the glove meant to me,” she recalls. After some informal but intense market research, lightning struck.

Remembers Hart: “I woke my husband up at 3 a.m. and said, ‘I have this great idea.’ He said, ‘Go back to sleep.’ He didn’t get it. He is Roman and grew up playing soccer. The next morning I bought some Rawlings gloves, took them back to the factory, and said to Gian Paolo: ‘Here, get inspired.’ He took the design elements of the glove—the hand lacing, criss-cross webbing, antique brass hardware, and we started brainstorming.”

The couple visited Horween, a Chicago-based leather company and longtime supplier of Rawlings. They took home leather, made some prototype briefcases and duffels, and called Rawlings to tell them, in vague terms, what they were doing. “They wanted samples but I wouldn’t give it to them,” Hart says. “But I kept calling them once a week for six months. Finally, they came to our offices and just about fainted. They told us, ‘This is about the coolest thing anyone has done with our brand.’”

Suddenly, Hart and Lombardo were playing on the same team as Babe Ruth, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Derek Jeter.

Fast forward to October 2006. Their privately owned company, Hawthorne Leather Goods LLC , is a fascinating business model. Leanly staffed—Ellen Hart is seemingly always working at her desk available to speak with customers, answering questions from callers, and not out gallivanting. That accessibility is refreshing when most top execs hide behind a wall of admins, PAs, marketing staffers, press agents and other factotums.

Besides the line of Rawlings luggage, Hawthorne also designs and manufactures luggage for some of the industry’s best known brands who outsource to Lombardo/Hart. She discreetly will not identify her industry customers.

The Rawlings line has national retail distribution plus it is sold on Hawthorne’s own visually inviting Web site, www.sportsaccessories.com. Unlike most travel goods sites (or most any retail site), theirs almost looks like a magazine page. Hart keeps overhead down by using friends as models and buying stock art.

Within the line, Hart says one of her best sellers is the Rawlings triple-gusset computer briefcase, R-292, made out of the same, smooth, rugged patented “heart-of-the-hide” leather (in tan or black) that goes into the baseball gloves. At 6 ½ pounds empty, it has a front section, center section with computer “cradle” compartment, and an expandable document pocket and a back section with a leather organizer to hold airline tickets, cell phone, reading glasses, pens. The exterior has a grip-laced handle, metal feet and a zippered back document pocket.

The case is priced at $375 on the sportsaccessories.com site and includes free one-day UPS ground shipping.

Like most manufacturers of almost any product today, Hart places some of the Rawlings line on discount Web sites, knowing that more shoppers are letting their mouse do the “walking” around different sites that aggregate 10 to 20 brands. For example, on www.discountluggage.com, which bills itself as the “original online discount luggage store,” I found the Rawlings three-gusset leather computer briefcase for $320, instead of the $395 list price. Hard to say if it is the exact same bag that’s on the sportsaccessories.com site because the sku number is different.

The sportsaccessories.com site, however, has the full lineup of Rawlings leather and travel goods that range from two-wheel roll-aboards, leather carry bags, totes, backpacks, to 22-inch duffels on wheels to double-zip travel kits. Discount sites only get certain products when makers want to spike sales or clear out inventory.

Meanwhile, Hart and Lombardo aren’t resting on their considerable laurels and pitching their prime customers that she describes as “doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs who once owned a baseball glove.” To reach a younger demographic that might have grown up with a joystick in their hand and a video baseball game on the computer screen instead of a Louisville Slugger and a hunk of horsehide, Hawthorne is offering some but not all of its Rawlings branded bags and luggage with a pebbled leather finish. The price point is about 30 percent less.

Still, Hart says these goods in the expanded lineup meet the same manufacturing, design and quality standards as the “heart of the hide” leather products. Another new touch: Some red contrasting leather stitching has been added to black leather bags for an “edgier” look.

This dynamic design and marketing duo has something new up their collective sleeve. Hart, who trailblazed by creating stylish and functional bags for professional women more than 15 years ago, has seen this market explode. No surprise since women account for 42 percent to 46 percent of all business travelers today and there are plenty of other businesswomen who do not get on a plane with any regularity.

So coming soon, Hart says, is www.careerbags.com (Web site not live yet) that plans to showcase all the top briefcases and computer case brands—not just Rawlings—designed for the working woman. She sees it as not just another Internet retailer but as the digital home base for this “huge community of professional women.”  Another home run idea or a strikeout? If Ellen Hart is pitching, the odds are in her favor.