REVIEW – The 80’s and 90’s belt styles, like densely riveted, nylon, and braided leather, could be fastened to almost any length. BeltBuy has sent me a Men’s leather dress belt with an automatic sliding ratchet buckle. Does this product provide a fully adjustable belt with contemporary fashion? Read on to see what I think!
What is it?
The BeltBuy Men’s leather dress belt with an automatic sliding ratchet buckle is a type of ratchet belt. Most belts come with 5 holes, 1″ apart. Some belts allow the length of the belt to be adjusted by removing the buckle and trimming the belt strap from the side of the belt without holes. The BeltBuy belt can be trimmed to length and has 31 plastic teeth sewen into the backside of the belt, each 1/4″ apart. The belt buckle has a spring-loaded ratchet that catches on the plastic teeth of the belt strap as it slides through the buckle. The design can be tightened by pulling on the belt strap and loosened by releasing the ratchet by a thumb lever on the base of the buckle.
What’s in the box?
- Genuine Cowhide leather beltstrap
- Zinc alloy belt buckle
Hardware specs
- Style: MEN’S LEATHER RATCHET DRESS BELT WITH AUTOMATIC BUCKLE SLIDING BELT FOR MEN IN GIFT BOX
- Length: 1.25 m (49.21″)
- Belt Width: 35 mm (1.38″)
- Buckle Width: 35 mm (1.38″)
Design and features
Unboxing
The actual description of the belt on the merchant DTC site is, “MEN’S LEATHER RATCHET DRESS BELT WITH AUTOMATIC BUCKLE SLIDING BELT FOR MEN IN GIFT BOX.” They are true to their promise and have provided the following packaging:
Inside the belt strap and buckle are assembled and wrapped in plastic so they do not abraid during shipment.
Design
The belt strap is a soft cowhide leather that is folded over and sewen closed asymmetrically on the backside. This design is less popular than the typical fabrication of cutting, stamping, and dying the ends, or sewing two strips of leather together along the edges. This folded design offers strength on the edges.
The inside is filled with a soft flexible material.
One thing I don’t often do is set my products on fire, but I did exactly that to one of the discarded sections I cut off while trimming the belt to fit. It smelled of burnt hair and had white smoke. These are tell tale signs that the belt is made from animal products. The fake leather has an acrid smell and produces black smoke.
The end tip is formed and dyed. The taper is rather blunt in keeping with contemporary trends.
The ratchet insert starts 3-3/4″ from the end tip and includes about 7 inches of useful rachet edges.
The buckle is a Zinc alloy material. This material is good for ensuring a rust free finish.
There is no indication of how much Nickel is in the alloy, but since the belt does not routinely come in contact with the skin that shouldn’t be a factor for most people.
The belt needs to be fed through the pants starting towards the left side and the end of the belt needs to be facing the left. This is because the belt release is on the buckle and needs to face down for aesthetic reasons. The belt release is easy to pull out with either the left or right hand.
The design on this particular belt is a black brushed inset surrounded by a chrome border.
The center of the brushing has a matte stripe surrounded with a bronze/gold triangle on each side. I think it looks good on but when it is not being worn it looks a little bit like an airplane belt buckle.
The belt keeper portion is riveted so that the buckle isn’t too long on the front of the waist. You can see it in two positions in the images below.
Operation
The first thing that may need to be done is cutting the belt to the appropriate length. This belt actually comes in four sizes: 110 cm, 115 cm, 120 cm, and 125 cm. The largest belt is about 49 1/4″ long and will fit up to about a 43″ waist. If a smaller size is needed, the belt may easily be “trim-to-fit” to any size. There was not any instructions for this but this is the basic procedure I used. I tried on the belt as you would normally wear it and measured how much excess leather there is past the desired left on my pants. I removed the belt buckle from the strap. I cut the buckle end short by the measured amount minus three inches, just to be sure. I used a kitchen meat knife and sawed through the belt, although a pair of scissors it a utility knife may work equally well. I re-attached the buckle and tried on the belt. It turns out that I really did want that extra three inches removed so I repeated the procedure above, but I figured it’s always best to cut less than I think and repeat than end up with a belt that is too short.
I felt very comfortable wearing the belt.
It does make a ratchet sound if you pull the belt through without opening the release. If it is important to be quiet, hold the release open while pulling the belt through and let go once it is at the correct tightness.
Performance
I tried pulling the belt open after it was set on a tooth and the belt is very sturdy. This pull test tests the teeth that hold the cut end of the belt into the buckle, the leather belt strap, the sewing of the hard rubber ratchet into the belt and the ratchet mechanism in the belt buckle.
I cannot comment on how well this belt would perform for holding tools or concealed carry – this is a dress belt after all. Also, as this is a gadget site, I must forewarn the reader that this belt does not have any of these features: Batarangs, Batline/Batrope/Batclaw/Batgrapple, Cryptographic sequencer, Bolas, Tracers, Smoke pellets, Gas pellets, Tranquillizer gun, Glue globules, Lock pick, Rebreather, Laser, Pellet grenades, Concussion mines, Explosive gel, Thermite grenades, Napalm, Taser, Remote electric charge, Stun pellets, EMP gun, Disruptor, Remote claw, Ultrasonic bat beacon, Sonic devastator, Freeze grenades, or Kryptonite.
What I like
- Stylish
- Customizable
What I’d change
- Include instructions
- Include alloy metal composition
Final thoughts
There are a number of manufacturers of similar styles of belts with a ratchet design, and I own a couple others like this. The ratchet design of the BeltBuy is on par with designs by other manufacturers, but the most distinguishing feature of the belt is the strap. I can say that the BeltBuy strap is one of the softest leather belts I have ever owned. While the material seems to be very strong and supportive, it is also supple. If you are looking for a belt that looks goos and is also guarantted to have a great fit, I recommend you try the BeltBuy.
Price: $21.00
Where to buy: BeltBuy
Source: The sample of this product was provided by BeltBuy.
