Galen Leather History: The Istanbul Family Workshop

A brown Galen leather zip pen case beside a company timeline from 2012 to 2025 — Seven dates in Galen Leather's history, from its founding in 2012 to its Galata store, as Galen's own pages give them.

Key takeaways

Galen's Turkish site says Fikret Zeynep Perens founded Galen in Istanbul in 2012 to design and make leather goods and writing accessories for stationery and pen lovers.
Zeynep and her brother Yusuf began making their own goods after the 2013 Christmas rush outran their supplier; Galen's first product was a simple journal cover.
Galen relaunched its online store under its own brand in 2015 and moved to its own Shopify store after PayPal stopped operating in Turkey in 2016.
Sadly, Zeynep Perens passed away on July 3, 2019, and her family carries on her work; Goulet Pens began stocking Galen that October, and Galen lists 16 US stockist entries.
Galen opened its first shop, the Galata flagship store in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, on December 27, 2025.

Galen Leather is one of the best-known makers of leather pen cases among US fountain pen users, yet it is a small family business in Istanbul. Every date below comes from Galen’s own pages, in Turkish first, then in English, with interviews and retailers as support; we translated the Turkish.

Who founded Galen Leather?

Fikret Zeynep Perens founded Galen Leather in Istanbul in 2012, and her brother Yusuf Perens soon joined her. Galen’s Turkish “Biz Kimiz” (Who we are) page says: “Galen 2012 yılında İstanbul’da Fikret Zeynep Perens tarafından … kuruldu”, founded in Istanbul in 2012 by Fikret Zeynep Perens to design and make leather goods and writing accessories for the stationery and pen world.

Galen’s English pages call her Zeynep. Yusuf Perens calls himself a co-founder in a 2024 interview with Kimp, describing the company as “founded by myself, Yusuf Perens, and my late sister, Zeynep.”

Galen still calls itself “İstanbul merkezli bir aile şirketi”, a family company based in Istanbul. Its Turkish site gives its motto as “Dijitalleşen hayatınızı, analog araçlarla yavaşlatmak”: to slow down your digital life with analog tools.

Galen Leather timeline: 2012 to 2026

The company runs from a one-woman online shop in 2012 to a workshop, a US store and an Istanbul flagship shop.

Date	Event	Source
2012	Fikret Zeynep Perens founds Galen in Istanbul	Galen Turkish site
September 2012	Zeynep is diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma and loses her voice for about a year	Galen, Our Story
Christmas 2013	An order spike overwhelms Galen’s supplier; Zeynep and Yusuf decide to make their own goods	Galen, Our Story
2015	Online store relaunched under Galen’s own brand; UPS and FedEx agreements; first workshop	Galen, Our Story
2016	PayPal stops operating in Turkey; Galen builds its own Shopify store	Yusuf Perens to Kimp
2017	Wooden Writing Box and notepad holder, made with a wood crafter	Galen, Rhodia Drive interview
2019	Notebooks made with special Japanese papers added	Galen Turkish site
July 3, 2019	Founder Zeynep Perens passes away; her brother Yusuf and husband Yunus carry on her work	Galen, Our Story
October 23, 2019	Goulet Pens announces it is stocking Galen	Goulet Pens
2020	First Galen-logo Kaweco fountain pen, a collaboration with Kaweco	Galen Turkish site
August 26, 2025	US duties and taxes collected at checkout	Galen US shipping update
December 27, 2025	Galen Galata flagship store opens in Beyoğlu, Istanbul	Galen Galata page
2026	First collaboration with Nock Co., the Legacy Collection pen cases	Galen product listing

How did Galen Leather start?

It began after a serious illness took away Zeynep Perens’s voice. In her own account, written in 2016 and kept on Galen’s site, she says she studied geophysics engineering and then spent ten years in advertising and sales. In September 2012 she was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare head and neck cancer, and after surgery and radiotherapy she could not talk to customers.

She needed work she could do by email. She bought leather pieces and old kilims from a supplier in Turkey’s Mediterranean region (“Akdeniz bölgesinde”) and sold them online; Yusuf told Kimp the shop started on Etsy, and the Turkish story says “bir pazaryerinde”, on a marketplace.

Yusuf, just graduated in economics, took the product photographs. Then the Christmas 2013 rush brought more orders than the supplier could fill, and the supplier later declined to make a leather cover for a Moleskine and an iPad that Zeynep’s husband wanted.

So Zeynep and Yusuf learned the craft themselves, from local leather crafters and YouTube videos. Galen says the first product it ever made was a simple journal cover.

Why is it called Galen?

Galen is the name of Zeynep’s favourite precious stone, and also of the ancient physician Claudius Galenus. Galen’s Turkish page says the stone was the one “Jeofizik Mühendisi” (geophysics engineer) Fikret Zeynep loved most.

Galen adds that Galenus was born in Pergamon, today’s Bergama in western Turkey, which it calls famous for leather. Its English About page says the same.

Where in Istanbul does Galen work?

Galen says it makes everything at its own workshop in Istanbul, and since December 2025 it has a shop in Galata. In its 2018 interview with Rhodia Drive, Galen said “All production is done at our workshop in Istanbul”; its About page shows the workshop in 2017, and its story pictures its first workshop in 2015.

Galen doesn’t publish the workshop’s street address. The company addresses on its sites are in the İkitelli Organized Industrial Zone (IOSB) in Başakşehir, on the city’s western side: the Turkish store’s seller, Galen Deri Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi, is at “IOSB mah, Başakşehir”, and the US contact page lists Apeks Reklam San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. in the Masko block there, noting “This is not a physical store location.”

The shop is in the old city center. Galen Galata, at Boğazkesen Caddesi No. 84/A in Firuzağa, Beyoğlu, opened on December 27, 2025, near the Galata Tower, with leather goods, pens, inks and a paper and ink testing area.

How are Galen Leather products made?

By hand, from vegetable-tanned full-grain leather that is laser cut and then stitched by hand. Galen told Rhodia Drive it combines “modern tech advantages with old school methods”, so everything is laser cut and hand-stitched.

Galen’s “Our Leather” page says its hides come mainly from Europe and are tanned and dyed in certified Turkish tanneries, among them Sepici, known for traditional tanning. It uses 2 mm leather for journals and Traveler’s-style covers, thinner leather for cases and folios, and a softer leather for items that roll.

Its listings add the details: waxed polyamide thread, beveled, waxed and burnished edges, velvet linings and YKK zips. You can see them in our guides to Galen’s Zippered 10 Slots and Zippered 40 Slots pen cases and its Magnum Opus 6 Slots hard case.

Because each item is made after the order, Galen’s lead-time page says handmade items typically take one to two weeks to ship. Its 2026 collaboration with Nock Co. is lined with Kutnu, a traditional Turkish handwoven fabric, according to Galen’s listing.

How does Galen sell in the United States?

Mostly direct, through its own US website, plus a network of US pen shops. Galen’s Turkish manifesto says the company sells its products directly to consumers “and should stay that way”, because that’s how it understands what customers want.

The 2015 relaunch and its agreements with UPS and FedEx let Galen ship worldwide from Turkey. Yusuf told Kimp that when PayPal stopped operating in Turkey in 2016, Galen built its own Shopify store, and that partnerships with micro-influencers on YouTube became its most successful marketing.

Today galenleather.com lists a US company, Galen Leather LLC, at a Newark, Delaware address. After the US ended its de minimis exemption, Galen began collecting US duties and taxes at checkout on August 26, 2025, and says it pays FedEx brokerage fees itself.

US shops carry Galen too. Goulet Pens announced it was stocking Galen on October 23, 2019, and Galen’s stockist page lists 16 US entries, including Atlas Stationers, Dromgoole’s, Jenni Bick, Vanness Pen Shop and Boston General Store; Galen also has Etsy and Amazon stores.

What are Galen’s best-known products?

Pen cases and notebook covers, then desk goods. On October 22, 2026, Galen’s US store, sorted by best selling, put a Cosmo Air Light paper notebook and the wooden Writing Box first, then its Leather Desk Pad, its Zippered A5 Notebook Folio and its Zippered 10 Slots pen case in the top seven.

Its Traveler’s Notebook Leather Cover goes back to Galen’s early years. In June 2016 The Gentleman Stationer described Galen as “an online storefront run by a brother and sister in Istanbul” and compared its cover with the more expensive TRAVELER’S notebook; every Galen order then came with an evil-eye talisman.

Galen also sells notebooks with Tomoe River paper and resells fountain pens and inks. A Milliyet column on Turkey’s pen community names Galen Leather, with NilsPen, as a boutique firm that specialises in bringing in fountain-pen-friendly notebooks.

What has Galen made with other brands?

A Kaweco fountain pen, a wooden writing desk and pen cases with Nock Co. Galen’s Turkish site says a 2020 collaboration with Kaweco produced the first Galen-logo Kaweco fountain pen; Galen still sells Galen-branded Kaweco Sport pens, such as Vivianite Green.

In 2017 Galen worked with a wood crafter on its vintage-style Writing Box and a wooden notepad holder, it told Rhodia Drive. In 2026 it launched a Legacy Collection with Nock Co., its first collaboration with Nock, with leather Sinclair and Lookout pen cases that Galen calls the rebirth of Nock designs. A fabric update of the Sinclair is Rickshaw’s Sinclair Model R.

Galen also sells metal fountain pens from Black Forest Pen, a small German maker it met at the Dutch Pen Show and the Istanbul Pen Fest; it lists them as Black Forest Pens.

Who runs Galen Leather now?

Zeynep’s brother Yusuf Perens and her husband Yunus E. Perens. Sadly, Zeynep passed away on July 3, 2019. Galen’s About page says the two are “lovingly carrying on her legacy and devotion to beautiful, quality handmade products.”

Her last message, which Galen keeps on its site, ends: “If you see the Sooty shearwater birds, remember me….” The Turkish manifesto she left closes the same way, with the yelkovan kuşları (shearwaters).

Galen remains an independent family company; our who owns which stationery brands story covers the groups behind the bigger names.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Galen Leather?

The Perens family. Galen describes itself as a family company based in Istanbul; since founder Zeynep Perens sadly passed away in 2019, her brother Yusuf and her husband Yunus have carried on her work, and no larger group owns it.

Is Galen Leather a Turkish company?

Yes. Galen Leather was founded in Istanbul in 2012 and makes its leather goods there. Its Turkish trading company is Galen Deri Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi, and it uses a US company, Galen Leather LLC, for its American store.

Why is the brand called Galen?

Galen is the name of Zeynep Perens's favourite stone, which she remembered from her geophysics studies. Galen adds that it's also the name of the physician-philosopher Claudius Galenus, born in Pergamon, today's Bergama, a town Galen calls famous for leather.

When did Galen Leather start?

Galen's own pages say 2012. The Gentleman Stationer reported in 2016 that Galen's About page then said it had operated since 2011 and sold online since 2012, and Galen's 2025 store page speaks of more than 15 years of craft.

Does Galen Leather make everything it sells?

No. It makes its leather goods by hand in Istanbul, made its wooden Writing Box with a wood crafter, and also resells pens, inks and notebooks from other brands, such as Leonardo, Kaweco and Leuchtturm1917.

Where can you buy Galen Leather in the US?

From Galen's own US store, which ships from Turkey with duties collected at checkout, and from US stockists such as Goulet Pens, Dromgoole's, Atlas Stationers, Jenni Bick and Boston General Store. Galen also lists stores on Etsy and Amazon.

What is Galen Leather best known for?

Pen cases and notebook covers. Its zippered pen cases, its A5 notebook folio, its desk pad and its Traveler's-style covers ranked among its best sellers on its US store in October 2026.

Sources (20)

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