Groove Belt Max leather belt review – They actually did it: a stretchy leather belt

REVIEW – I like the Groove Life Groove Belt that I reviewed back in 2020 so much that it became my daily belt.  But I always wished there was a leather version available.  Boom! Groove Belt Max Leather!  Let’s check it out!

What is it?

The Groove Belt Max Leather is an adjustable, stretchable authentic leather belt that utilizes neodymium magnets as its buckle closure mechanism.

What’s included?

• Groove Belt Max Leather consisting of buckle and strap

Tech specs

Design and features

First, some background.  I’m a big fan of Groove Life.  I wear a Groove Life silicone wedding band most days because I work out a lot and barbell knurl was chewing up my gold wedding band.  And, as mentioned above, back in 2020 I reviewed the Groove Life Groove Belt, the original version that Groove Life now refers to as “The OG.”  I liked the ease and speed of the satisfying “click” of its magnetic buckle and its just-the-right-amount of stretch, and it became my EDC belt that I’ve worn it everywhere—daily to the office, to church, to weddings, on work and personal travel, out on the town, and everywhere in between.  I like it so much that I also bought it in brown.  But as much as I like The OG, I always sort of wished there was a leather version available.  Well, those insane geniuses at Groove Life must have an illegal wire tap on my thoughts, because they developed the Groove Belt Max Leather, a leather version of the Groove Belt belt with—get this—stretchy leather.  Yeah, sure.  Stretchy leather.  But does it actually work?  

Packaging

I’m a product development engineer in my day job and in that role, I work closely with our marketing team and I can tell you that packaging is 100% part of the product.  If done right, it can enhance the product buying experience for the customer, and if done poorly, it gives a bad first impression.  While the packaging of The OG Groove Belt was very minimalist, Groove Life took the packaging of their Groove Belt Max Leather up a couple of notches.  The outer box, as shown above, is a cardboard clamshell box with the characteristic Groove Life topographic map flanking the edges.  Looks rugged and clean and is recyclable, which is always a plus.

The inner box is all black, with the Groove Life logo emblazoned in the center.  Bold, clean, minimalist, and again, recyclable.

Open the inner box’s clamshell lid and you find the components of the Groove Belt Max Leather carefully protected, with some basic, easy-to-follow assembly instructions printed onto the lid (and a QR code for more detailed instructions, if needed).

Above are the items inside the package: the strap with the back half of the buckle attached and the front half of the buckle, which must be assembled to the strap (more on this below).  I was sent the black Groove Belt Max Leather for this review, but it is also available in brown.

Buckle Design

The black Groove Belt Max Leather has an all-black buckle with the characteristic Groove Life design. The shape is a rectangle with angled corners and the front has a brushed surface, with the Groove Life “GL” logo in the lower right corner. 

The back of the front half of the Groove Belt Max Leather buckle has a rectangular neodymium magnet* mounted in the dead center, as well as two hooks flanking the magnet (more on this below).  There is also the hinged clasp (the piece with the serrated teeth) on one side that locks the leather strap in place (again, more on this below).  I’m going to refer to this half of the buckle as the latch buckle from here onward.

* neodymium magnets are powerful.  If you have a pacemaker, be cautious about using any Groove Belt near your device.

The front of the back half of the buckle, the part that is attached to the leather strap, and has its own matching neodymium magnet, as well as two slots that “catch” the hooks on the front part of the buckle.  The matching magnet helps guide the two hooks into place and capture them in the two grooves. This locks the front and back halves of the buckle together and Clicka-Boom! the genius of the Groove Belt’s buckle is in full effect. In fact, Groove Life calls this magnet feature “Snap-Tech” and the complimentary hook feature “Secure-Tech” and for good reason.  I’m going to refer to this half of the buckle as the slider buckle from this point onward, for reasons that will become apparent in a bit.

Strap Design

Additionally, as seen above, there is a tag on the back of the Groove Belt Max Leather’s strap that indicates the materials from which the belt and its components are made.  As you can see, the belt’s strap does in fact feature full grain leather, in addition to 80% polyester and 20% “rubber” (which is pretty vague).  This combo is the key to Groove Belt’s “Stiff Tech” which provides rigidity yet comfort and is a clue to one of the Groove Belt Max Leather’s most ingenious features (more on this below).

So does the leather, in fact, stretch?  Or is it just a gimmick?  It does indeed stretch, and the way Groove Life appears to have accomplished this is quite ingenious.  The Groove Belt Max Leather’s strap consists of an outer sheath of thin, full grain leather, with an interior core of webbing that is similar in composition to its OG belt, which stretches a bit while maintaining rigidity.  But the leather itself doesn’t actually stretch.  In its free state, the outer leather sheath has a tiny amount of excess slack material which is essentially dimpled and bunched up along its length, which I’ve attempted to illustrate in the closeup pic above.

When a tensile load is applied to the strap, say, by pulling lengthwise on it, or when you are wearing it and you either stand up or sit down, two things happen simultaneously: the inner core of rubber-containing webbing expands, while that tiny amount of excess slack leather on the exterior spreads out over the webbing.  So while the leather itself isn’t actually stretching, the overall belt does stretch, thus giving the illusion of a stretch leather belt. Brilliant!

Assembly, Installation, Setup

Let’s go through the steps to assemble the Groove Belt Max Leather, which are quite simple.

Start by lifting the latch buckle’s hinged clasp and aligning the end of the leather strap with the slot under the hinged clasp.

Next, carefully slide the end of the leather strap into the slot under the hinged clasp until it contacts the two guides.

And finally, close the hinge clasp to lock the end of the leather belt into the latch buckle.  This step may be a bit more challenging than expected, because you need to apply sufficient force for the clasp to bite into the leather strap, but it’s totally doable—just give it a firm squeeze to lock it down.

Boom!  Latch buckle is assembled and ready to rock.

Here’s a pic of the fully assembled Groove Belt Max Leather.

And here’s a pic of the Groove Belt Max Leather with the latch buckle and slider buckle locked together.  That’s a sharp looking belt.

Length Adjustment

Groove Life has made it quick and easy to adjust the length of the Groove Belt Max Leather.  

We’ll start with the slider buckle of the Groove Belt Max Leather, shown in the pic above from the front.

Now let’s flip the Groove Belt Max Leather over and take a look at the back, or the inside of the belt.  Here’s why I’ve been referring to the slider buckle as the slider buckle: because it slides along a toothed track on the back of the belt strap, and because you use a slider button to release the buckle to slider along the track. 

Adjusting the length of the Groove Belt Max Leather basically involves all of two steps, illustrated in the pic above. First, use your finger to move the knurled slider button down, then while continuing to holding the slider button like this, move the buckle along the toothed track to the position you want, then release the slider button and the buckle locks in place automatically.  

This feature allows Groove Belt Max Leather to have about five inches of length adjustment. Most folks won’t need nearly this much travel (unless they’ve lost/gained some weight) and Groove Life intends for this feature to be “Set it and forget it.” I find myself only needing to make length adjustment in about a half-inch range depending on the waistband tightness of the pants I’m wearing. 

Buckle slider

Performance

The Groove Belt Max Leather looks and feels pretty darn good no matter what type of pants you wear it with.  Above, I’m wearing it with my pair of Bluffworks Departure Travel Jeans that reviewed back in 2019.  

The Groove Belt Max Leather also looks superb in dress-up mode, as seen in the pic above with a pair of dress slacks.  

Comparison to the OG Groove Belt

I thought it would be good to do a quick comparison between the original (“OG”) Groove Belt, shown above on left, and the Groove Belt Max Leather, shown above on the right.  

At first glance, both the OG Groove Belt (above left) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above right) look fairly similar.

The design of the front of the buckle is virtually identical between the OG Groove Belt (above top) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above bottom).

However, the design of the other half of the buckle has been slightly updated between the OG Groove Belt (above top) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above bottom), with some changes to the length and location of the holes as well as the slot that the neodymium magnet sits in.

Of course, the back of the other half of the buckle is significantly different between the OG Groove Belt (above top) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above bottom) due to the method in which the two belts accomplish length adjustment.

There is a very slight difference in the thickness of the front buckle between the OG Groove Belt (above top) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above bottom). 

The most significant difference between the OG Groove Belt (above top) and the Groove Belt Max Leather (above bottom) is the thickness of the slider buckle.  For the OG, the combination of the front and back halves of the buckle is 0.39 inches, which is pretty thick.  However, for the Max Leather this thickness is 0.53 in, which is over half an inch thick.  This added thickness poses a challenge, which I’ll describe below.

This brings me to the one issue I have with the Groove Belt Max Leather—the thickness of the slider buckle frequently prevents it from sliding through belt loops.  The pic above is a belt loop from the khaki-color dress slacks I’m wearing several pics above.   As you can see, it’s a very tight fit.  If you are planning to wear the Groove Belt Max Leather with pants or shorts in which the belt loops are 1.75 inches long or less, you will likely struggle to get the slider buckle through the belt loops.  Belt loops that are 2 inches long or greater will probably be fine.  While this situation does occur with my OG Groove Belt, it was infrequent and I could deal with it fairly easily.  However, with the significantly thicker slider buckle on the Groove Belt Max Leather, it happens much more often and can take a few minutes to work the slider buckle through all the belt loops.  This was quite frustrating, especially when traveling and being told I had to remove my belt to get through airport security, then put it back on afterward.

What I like about the Groove Life Groove Belt Max Leather

• It’s a leather belt that actually stretches.  Nuff said.
• Length adjustment is quick and easy.
• Classic Groove Belt magnetic locking buckle is quick, easy, and satisfying to use.
• Looks classy and can be worn with jeans, dress slacks, and and just about anything in between

What needs to be improved?

• Thickness of slider buckle prevents it from easily passing through shorter belt loops, which can be frustrating.

Final thoughts

As with the OG Groove Belt, which has become my daily belt, I quite like the Groove Belt Max Leather.  This belt is loaded with high-tech features like the adjustable length mechanism, the classic Groove Belt magnetic buckle, and the fact that it is a leather belt that actually stretches, which is wicked cool.  However, the thickness of the slider buckle makes it difficult to fit it through shorter belt loops on some pants, which can be frustrating.  The Groove Belt Max Leather is a bit pricey at $125.99, but with the number of high-tech features included in this belt, I think it’s justified.  If they could just slim down that slider buckle, this belt would be darn near perfect.

Price: $124.95
Where to buy: Groove Life
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Groove Life. Groove Life did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.