I have an impression in my head that reversible belts are prone to failure under the ‘less moving parts = better’ maxim. I also have a distinct but unreasoned distaste of ratchet buckles. It may be because I like the “score keeping” of a normal buckle. If I’m gaining weight, my belt will tell me even if I’m not watching the scale.
But it also seems like the vast majority of decent low-cost belts fall into one of these two categories. I don’t need anything fancy for my day-to-day beltery.
What say you, Dopers? How do we feel about all of this new-fangled belt technology?
My current belt is a standard cheapo reversible. However, I’m buying a couple new belts with the following plan:
One tan/brown full grain leather belt with standard buckle. Simple and lasting for every day use.
One black ratchet style belt for dress wear.
My thinking is that I only wear a black dress belt a few times a year and this way it’ll always be fitted so it looks good with the suit and I don’t have to worry about being between sizes or whatever. For my every day belt, I just want something nice and durable – I’ve gone through too many cheap belts in my time and hope to settle on something that’ll last me a long while.
Seeing as how I had no idea what a ratchet belt is, I’ve got a couple reversibles for when I really need a good belt. I almost never wear a dress belt as I wear jeans basically every single day. So my main belt is one solid piece of Mexican leather with some holes punched in it and a removable buckle. Practical, very durable, and not at all appropriate for anything higher than jeans.
I love the ratchet-style belts, and I have several Mission Belt buckles and leathers. And one time a buckle broke after a year or two, and they replaced it for free.
Isn’t leather leather? I wear jeans every day. I have khakis for dress occasions. To me, a leather belt is dressy, or casual, depending on what pants it is holding up.
The belt I have on now is stretchy, without any holes. I consider it my casual belt, but I’m pretty sure it is also my only belt.
ETA: looking online, I see that my belt is a Men’s Elastic Braid Belt
I have a reversible leather belt that I wear every day to work. My last reversible failed after about 5 years of use - the reversing mechanism was the piece that failed. But 5 years is pretty good for every day use and the belt itself was getting a little raggedy.
I also have a single sided black leather belt for fancy dress although it’s really no different looking from my current reversible one. I also have a webbing belt that I use on hiking pants and shorts.
Leather comes in different levels of quality. Full-grain leather is a single strip of dead cow hide. The other types are various forms of reconstituted leather made up from scraps being glued together like particle board, then with a thin covering.
But from an aesthetics perspective, something like this looks much more casual than this. Plus, you know, matching your pants/suit.
There isn’t a lot of rules on what they can call leather. Bonded leather is basically leather mash that has be formed into a leather (particle board). A bonded leather belt will last me a month.
Split grain leather is the underside of the leather (closest to the meat) when they split the hide to make thin enought to use. A split grain belt will last me a year.
Full grain leather is the skin side and will last for years. Its like saddle leather.
Well, we’re not all dirty hippies I still have cause to dress up proper a few times a year and figure my heavy-duty jeans & casual khakis belt isn’t going to match my weddings & funerals suit.
I wear a reversible, specifically and only because I wanted a plain black belt and that was my only option. (My prodigious girth limits my shopping options.) The thing will probably break in a few years - it doesn’t help that I fiddle with it. (It’s a twist reversible where the buckle spins around and clicks in place. Twist-click, twist-click, twist-click, twist-click.) However I hope to replace the entire belt before that happens; I’ve tightened it two notches in the three months since I got it, and hope for that trend to continue.
I got tired of the outer leather parts on my old belts flaking off quickly, looking terrible and having to be replaced often. Even the decent designer brand belts that were not all that cheap would do this. Then I bought a belt that it actually solid full grain leather and it been a couple of years and it still looks great. I even managed to put it through the washer on accident and it is fine.
I recently discovered ratchet belts and I purchased a black and a brown from Amazon.
Due to my recent health issues I lost some weight and am now gaining, plus I’m still dealing with various surgical dressings and tubes, so the easy adjustability is a big help.
Cotton web belts. Like the military uses. Comes in many colors and is infinitely adjustable from both sides since the buckle is easy to move along the belt as well.
I’ve also been able to just pull the buckle off when going through TSA, but YMMV.
I use a belt made of braided/woven elastic cords. It works like a belt with holes, except the “hole” can be any space between the cords. I like that it’s almost-continuously adjustable, since my girth varies from day to day and over the course of a day. Also, any time I’ve had a belt with punched holes, I’d end up using the same hole every day, and that hole would be what would wear out, far before the rest of the belt did. Or, if the belt had holes close enough together that which hole I used would vary, that’d weaken it enough that all of the holes would tear through.
I’m guessing that by “ratchet belt”, folks mean the same kind that I used to wear with my Boy Scout uniform: The belt itself was a strip of webbing with no holes whatsoever, and the buckle was held in place by friction, and had to be pulled out at an angle to release. That’s fine, too, except that I hardly ever see that sort of belt except as part of a specific uniform.
I still have cause to dress up proper a few times a year and figure my heavy-duty jeans & casual khakis belt isn’t going to match my weddings & funerals suit.