About Us

Jen Tabor is the founder & creative visionary behind the vintage inspired rock ‘n roll lifestyle brand, Souldier.

Souldier was born in Jen’s apartment in Chicago, 2005 and has grown into a global lifestyle brand with international distribution and a network of the biggest names in the rock ‘n roll community supporting her goods. Jen’s passion for self-expression and her desire to help people express their unique style inspired her to create a rock ‘n roll lifestyle brand made in the USA. She wanted to allowing people to design their own unique products and built a USA factory where the finest materials meet high quality craftsmanship meant to last a lifetime.

While working as a music teacher in Chicago, she joined a rock band and decided to make guitar straps as birthday presents for her guitarists. Each strap fit the personality of the user, a thready strap to match the corduroy jacket Neil wore and a sharp black and red pattern that would stand out against the pressed white shirts Ben wore after leaving the ad agency. Both straps were made on seatbelt her dad had gifted from his job in auto repair, and the leather ends were hand cut to look like a family crest. After searching for more ‘personalities’ underserved in local music stores, Jen created an initial 24 piece line and walked into 200+ retailers the first year, sewing in the evening, teaching during the day, and slinging straps on the weekends.

The first two stores to pick up the Chicago-made line were Rock ‘N Roll Vintage and Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, but it was at Killer Vintage Guitars in St. Louis that divine intervention revealed itself. The conversation when something like this:

J: Check out my guitar strap line! Handmade in Chicago on recycled seatbelt so they’ll last forever!
KV: Oh yeah! We have straps that look like this!
J: What? You can’t, I just started making them.
KV: No way, this is the fabric Jimi Hendrix had a Woodstock. We’ve been pulling straps our of cases for years. Do you want to see the box we’ve collected?

It turned out that the fabric found was original, vintage deadstock from guitar strap companies that made product in Chicago in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Iconic artists, original fabric, recycled seatbelt, and American craftsmanship became the lifeblood of the Souldier story.

From boutique retailers to launching Souldier pop-ups in music festivals across the country, Jen has taken her unique approach to high-quality design and created a global niche market. She has tailored the act of buying a strap into a nostalgic experience. Her products are all handmade in the USA, in the Souldier factory, where each item is meticulously perfected. Keeping the products made in America is a core value of the brand.

Souldier has a lot on the horizon for their 20-year anniversary in 2025 with the acquisition of a former newspaper building in Niles, MI. The new location is the flagship for the brand and houses the Souldier music school, the Groove School and the Good For Your Soul Foundation, a not-for-profit music school providing free instruments and lessons to underprivileged students in the community. The new location, dubbed Music Mecca, is home to Souldier manufacturing, the Groove School, Souldier Goods retail shop, and a full live music venue and bar. Jen plans to continue to build the brand both domestically & internationally, uniting the tribe that put the Soul in Souldier.

PARTNERSHIPS

In 2007, Souldier launched a partnership with Wilco, creating the first full-band signature line. In 2008, Souldier partnered with Jack Spade on a signature bag, creating the first ‘bag strap’ for their vintage-inspired Woody bag. In 2010, Souldier partnered with the Austin City Limits Music Festival to create ACL x Souldier curated product line in honor of their 10-year anniversary of the festival. In 2017, Souldier partnered with Japanese fashion brand Hunting World to create a namesake line that walked the runway at Milan’s Fashion Week. Taylor Swift’s 2021 Grammy performance featured Souldier when she used our strap in her iconic video trilogy during the event.

Jen has been a consultant to many movie productions as well, working with Andre 3000 for his film about Jimi Hendrix, and guiding The Runaways with historic product.

The company has expanded its partnerships to include Jack Spade, The Grateful Dead, The University of Notre Dame, Martin Guitars, Hunting World, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits, The Disney Store. Jen has continued to create custom branded merch for many bands such as My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Johnny Marr, Johnny Cash, and the list goes on.