They say necessity is the mother of invention. For Michael Lyons, co-owner of a Standish-based wallet company, inspiration was born of necessity and a pinch of back pain.

Nearly a decade ago Lyons visited a chiropractor complaining of severe back pain. The diagnosis: The bulky wallet he kept in his back pocket was bad for his spine and the cause of his discomfort.

Inspired, Lyons and his son, Wells Lyons, designed a thinner, slightly curved wallet that fits comfortably in a front pocket. The wallet has cured his chronic back pain and “turned into a nice little business for us,” Lyons said.

Lyon’s wallet business, Rogue Industries, is expanding and needs greater manufacturing capacity. Last summer it purchased a new building, an 1800s farmhouse on Saco Road in Standish, where they “want to have some modest stitching capabilities,” Lyons said.

The house, a former bed-and-breakfast, will serve as office space for Lyons’ eight employees. The workshop next door will hold their inventory and, for now, a single sewing machine for stitching the wallets.

At a trade show in Atlanta last week, Rogue Industries, a division of Lyon’s legal and reference publishing company, Tower Publishing, signed 25 new clients, according to Lyons, and all of them want wallets manufactured in the United States. Some Rogue wallets are made at a partner company in Lewiston, others imported from India and China. Lyons said they plan to continue both of these partnerships.

Rogue Industries provides wallets to roughly 200 companies across the country, including nationally known brands Orvis and Duluth Trading Co. Locally, Rogue wallets are sold at the Oak Hill General Store on Route 25 in Standish, the Rogue Industries office, and Man Cave Hair Lounge on Route 302 in Windham.

The wallet comes in a number of different materials, from bison leather to baseball glove, canvas and nylon. It’s very thin, and when closed, looks a bit like a shark’s fin.

The wallets are mainly targeted toward men, who are more accustomed to sticking their wallet in a pocket rather than a purse, but the company also designs clutches and a bag targeted specifically toward women.

On Tuesday, Lyons received approval from the Standish Board of Appeals for a special exception variance to allow for the manufacturing of the wallets. Now that Lyons has approval, he will meet with the Planning Board next month to get final approval, he said.

Although Lyons said the Standish location will start out with a single sewing machine, “we’d love it if we had to add more,” he said.

Lyons said the size of his staff will likely remain the same, and his employees will be trained to stitch wallets. Due to advancements in technology, he said, “you don’t need 15 years of experience to stitch a wallet.”

Lyons plans to manufacture “hundreds” of additional wallets at the new site.

“We’re not doing this for a few dozen wallets,” he said.

Wells Lyons, Rogue Industries co-owner and company attorney, said he plans to learn how to stitch wallets.

Lyons, who carries the company’s moose leather wallet, works out of Rogue Industries’ Portland design office, where he tinkers with designs himself.

All employees receive training to learn more about the different leather products, he said.

“Even the sales team went out to a leather-stitching workshop,” he said, the idea being the more you know about your product, the better you sell.

About the expansion, Lyons said, “we’re really excited. It’s a great opportunity for us.”

The town has worked with Lyons in the past to “keep his business here and help it grow,” Town Manager Gordy Billington said. He described Lyons as an “interesting entrepreneur” with an “inventive spirit.”

The business’ expansion is “wonderful,” Billington added, and keeping it in Standish “is very advantageous to the town.”

Michael Lyons, co-owner of Rogue Industries, stands in front of the workshop at his new office in Standish. Lyons is expanding his wallet company and increasing its capacity to manufacture a front-pocket wallet.

The front-pocket wallet, designed by Michael Lyons of Rogue Industries, helped end his back pain. Lyons said he has heard “dozens and dozens of identical stories” from men who experience back pain from sitting on a bulky wallet.