In 1983 five men gathered and competed in the first Washington State Leatherman contest. That competition was sponsored and held at the J & L Saloon (or as it was fondly called “Judy’s Lounge”). At that time the contest was called the Washington State Leatherman and the winner went on to compete in the Pacific Northwest Mr. Leather Contest along with titleholders from Oregon and British Columbia, who would then go onto the International Mr. Leather Competition in Chicago. That night Mark Sauer was named the first Washington State Leatherman.

The next year, again at the J & L Saloon, several men competed for the title and Doug Connell was crowned champion. Doug, an active member of the Knights of Malta organization, then went on to represent the Washington State Leatherman title at the Pacific Northwest Leather Competition, where he won. Doug became the first Washington State Leatherman to compete at the International Mr. Leather Competition in Chicago. Doug went everywhere and managed to bring a larger recognition of the Seattle Leather community.

In 1985, the title name was changed to Washington State Mr. Leather. That year, Richard Heinigh was named Washington State Mr. Leather. Richard continued his winning ways at the International level by being named 1st runner-up at the 1985 International Mr. Leather Contest. Richard’s continued hard work for both the local and International leather communities was saluted by the International Mr. Leather organization, when the International Mr. Leather Travel fund was named for him.

The following year Steve Maidof was named Washington State Mr. Leather and competed at the International Mr. Leather contest. Following the International competition, Steve gathered a small group of local leather folk in his living room with the idea of staging a “Living in Leather” Conference that San Francisco and New York leather communities said couldn’t be done. Thus, the National Leather Association was born here in Seattle with Steve as the founding “Daddy” and President.

In 1998, the first non-Seattleite won the competition. Tom Coker, of Tacoma was named Washington State Mr. Leather that year.

In 1989 Vik Stump, a local women’s leather leader began the first Washington State Ms. Leather competition. The competition was held at Club S. That year Lauren Burch became the first Washington State Ms. Leather.

In 1990 Howard Martin was named Washington State Mr. Leather and that year went on to win the national title of “Mr. NLA”.

In 1991, Wes Randall was named Washington State Mr. Leather and was featured in a photo spread in Drummer Magazine, including the cover.

1992-93 was a pivotal year for the Washington State Mr. Leather organization, when Washington State Mr. Leather 1991, Wes Randall and 1992 Washington State Mr. Leather, Ron Clouse, approached local community leader’s Scott Rodriguez and TIm F. to reform the organization. Under Scott’s leadership, and Presidency, WSMLO became a federally recognized non-profit organization (it had been a for profit group). The newly formed organization expanded it’s activities within the Seattle community beyond just producing the leather contest by organizing and producing the annual Seattle Pride Festival and a non-profit Softball tournament called the Emerald Cup for several years. Additional, Scott believed that the goal of the organization should be to recognize both people and organizations in the Seattle Community, so WSMLO founded the National Leather Emerald Award, the Leather Emerald Awards and the Community Service Award.

Also that year with the hard work of both Wes Randall, Ron Clouse and then Northwest Drummer, Todd Airhart, the first Washington State Leather Pride Week was born, which WSMLO eventually took over the oversight of the weeklong activities celebrating the Leather Community in the State of Washington.

In 1994, Generic Leather Production took over the Washington State Ms. Leather Competition from Vic. That year a local attorney, Sir Spencer Bergstedt won that title. Spencer went on to compete at International Ms. Leather competition, and won.

In 1997, Vince Edd was named Washington State Mr. Leather and would later compete and win the national title of Mr. Ebony Leather.

In 1998, a change of leadership developed following the Washington State Mr. Leather Contest in March of that year, when Scott Rodriguez, decided to step down as President of the organization. At that time Tim F., took over the Presidents position, (since serving as Vice President, under Scott since 1992.)

The year 2000 was both a happy time and a sad time for the Organization. In the beginning of the year 2000, Generic Leather Productions sold The Washington State Ms. Washington Title to the Washington State Mr. Leather Organization, finally bring both titles under the same parent organization. But on a sad note, in late November, WSMLO past President, Scott Rodriguez, passed away after a strong battle against PML and AIDS.

In 2001, The Scott Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship fund was founded to honor his commitment to Community and hard work. It was administered by the Pride Foundation, and was one of it’s largest applied for scholarship fund that the Pride foundation had, with six scholarships given out yearly (This scholarship fund ran for the 15 years it was intended for and has since ended). Additionally, the administration office at the Leather Archives and Museum, in Chicago, was donated in his honor.

Also in the year 2001, Michael Chappell, a resident of Spokane, became the first East side person in the state, to hold the title of Washington State Mr. Leather.

In 2006, both Washington State Mr. Leather 2005, Rusty Jones and Washington State Ms. Leather 2005, Shelley Denton went on to compete at the American Brotherhood Weekend, and brought home the national titles of American Leatherman and American Leatherwoman.

In 2007, Rob Grant, Washington State Mr. Leather 2006, went on to compete at the International Mr. Leather competition, where he placed 1st runner-up.

In 2008, Hobbit Smith, Washington State Ms. Leather 1995, returned to the community and vied for International Ms. Leather 2008, and brought back that title to Seattle.

In 2009, Lamalani, Washington State Ms. Leather 2008, went on to compete at the International Ms. Leather competition, and continued the title of International Ms. Leather 2009, here in Seattle.

In 2012, after many years of training a large and diverse WSMLO board of directors, Tim F., stepped aside, and Jeff Henness served as Board President. Presently, Toby Noon has taken over the leadership role as Board President.

In 2019, The Board of Directors decided to change the organizations name to Washington State Leather Organization, in order to better encompass the entire leather community. The federal legal name remains the same, but now we operate under the dba name of Washington State Leather Organization.