$189 Dog Leashes With Gold Hardware: Paw Fancy Chases Pet Luxury

Brandon Dadbin is selling a $189 dog leash, and he's betting affluent pet owners will pay for Italian leather and hardware dipped in 14-karat gold.

His brand, Paw Fancy, launched earlier this year. The flagship leash pairs soft Italian leather with triple stitching and clasps finished in 14-karat gold or silver. Customers have already started calling it the "Hermès of dog leashes."

"We design the way a fashion house does," Dadbin says of the brand.

The backdrop is a $158 billion market. Americans spent that much on their pets in 2025, according to the American Pet Products Association. The money flows to designer beds, monogrammed collars and dog sweaters that cost more than human ones. Yet the leash — the one item owners touch every single day — has barely changed.

"Even going back 100 years, leashes still look the same for the most part," Dadbin says.

What makes the leash different?

The core selling point is what Dadbin calls EVO modular hardware. Paw Fancy's patent-pending clip has an extended arm that scoops and closes with one hand. It hooks onto a belt loop for hands-free walking, or wraps around a restaurant table leg.

The longer-term plan is interchangeable straps and hardware, so owners can mix finishes and colors like Lego pieces instead of buying a new leash. In plain words: Dadbin wants the leash to become a platform, not a one-time purchase.

Where the founder comes from

Dadbin learned the business from his mother, who fled Iran at 16 and built a home textile company in Los Angeles. When the family Pomeranian jumped onto one of her fabrics, she started making pet beds. That brand became Best Friends by Sheri. It grew from $1 million in sales into the No. 1 pet bed brand on Amazon, and was ultimately sold for $60 million.

Dadbin is the youngest of three brothers by nine years, and he often had to fight for his ideas to be heard inside the family company. When he pitched superhero dog toys, his older brother told him licensing was not a possibility. A week later, Dadbin met a neighbor whose wife worked in licensing at Disney Consumer Products. That introduction led to deals with Disney, and later Marvel.

After the acquisition, he wanted something of his own. Dog beds meant bulky boxes and expensive inventory. Leashes were small enough to start from home.

Will retailers bite?

Paw Fancy has only been on the market for a few months, but it has already drawn interest from Chewy, HomeGoods and Pet Supplies Plus. That's three major retail names circling a brand that hasn't yet celebrated its first birthday.

Some skeptics have warned Dadbin that leashes are a slow-moving category. He isn't buying it. "I heard that same story with beds, but look at how that changed," he says.

He has the track record to back the claim: he watched his mother's pet bed brand scale from $1 million in sales to an Amazon-topping position and a $60 million exit, in a category people once dismissed the same way. The bet now is that leashes follow the same arc — from afterthought to accessory — and that enough owners will pay luxury prices for the walk they take twice a day.