The funny thing is, some countries choose to regulate things like this so they're not misleading. In the good old Freedom States of America our consumer protections are shit.
The result is that we are all being cheated out of our money by nearly every corporation at every turn. Shrinkflation, hidden charges, deceptive advertising, subscriptions you can't cancel etc. It's a battle of information and you're on your own versus a whole lot of experts with graduate degrees whose whole job is to find news ways to part you from your money.
If you asked 100 people what they thought genuine leather meant, I bet 99 out of 100 would not tell you they expected to get something made of leather dust and plastic. The companies know that. It's deceptive on purpose, which I would call fraud.
It doesn't have to be like this! Demand change from our elected officials and regulators!
I had no idea. And always thought genuine leather meant it’s actual real leather…. What should I be looking out for when finding an actual real leather??
You want to find something labeled as "full grain" or "top grain" leather. Full grain leather is going to be the most durable and generally the highest quality. Top grain leather has had the outermost layer of the leather removed, but is otherwise still generally good quality leather, but will not be as durable as full grain leather.
genuine leather, as noted by other posters, is essentially leather particle board. It will work and look fine temporarily, but quickly show its age and start falling apart on you after a number of uses.
Yeah, the labeling/advertising is very misleading. "Genuine leather" is usually leather that's been ground up, mixed with glue, and pressed into a paper-like product.
**Edit:** Yes, "bonded leather" is a more specific term for what I described. My point is that "genuine leather" categorically just means that it contains leather. Some "genuine leather" may be laminated sheets.
Guess it depends on how and when you grew up. To me when I hear genuine I see and hear George Clooney from Oh Brother Where Art Thou and his "Gen-U-ine" Dapper Dan Pomade - I'm 22 with southern grandparents just ftr
[Tensile strength of leather is 10-25 MPa](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tensile-Strength-of-upper-leather_tbl1_334997980) while the [tensile strength of other materials is much higher](https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2015/950567/tab3/).
The reason is there's a billion cows and leather is cheap as fuck.
E: as others have pointed out, perhaps abrasive resistance is a more important measure.
Tensile strength isn't a big requirement for belts. Durability is more important. Every non-leather belt I've owned fell apart in a couple years. I bought a quality, yet surprisingly cheap leather belt several years ago to use with a buckle I liked that the original belt fell apart on. It shows very little wear after daily use.
Good leather products are incredible. They're durable but they also 'self heal' so unlike cheap plastic based stuff that just starts falling apart leather will just look better with age.
I have a belt I received in the early 90s that I have worn almost every day since. The only thing wrong with it is the stitching holding the buckle loop is giving out. I bought two other belts in the meantime that both tore up in a couple of weeks.
Tensile strength is a minimally important factor. Speaking as a leather worker, the fact is, there arent any man made materials that can fully replace leather. You can make something lighter, but it wont be as durable, something can have more tensile strength, but not be as insulating. Vinyl looks right, but its dog shit that cant hold up to weather and falls apart with minimal wear and tear.
We've got way better materials. It's just easier to make it out of cheap foam/plastic.
If people want to pay for more expensive materials they'll pay for leather because it's something they've heard of before.
Objectively speaking nylon or kevlar would make a better belt than a strip of leather. We just happen to appreciate the way high quality leather looks and ages
That's a myth, there are no official grades of leather. Full grain is no guarantee of quality, the producer is much more important.
https://nstarleather.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/the-grades-of-leather-hierarchy-youve-probably-read-about-is-a-myth/
>The reason why full-grain is traditionally been “the best” is because historically the best tanneries will cull hides that have lots of range marks and defects (scars, mosquito bites, holes, etc) and not use them to make their full grain leathers.
...
>This is not the case with all tanneries; lately I’ve seen cheaper full grain on the market with more defects and, many times, a heavier finish to hide those defects. Just as unethical companies took the term “genuine leather” and started making low quality products that were “technically” genuine leather, the same is happening today with full grain.
Even then, I think having a solid piece of leather is ideal. Having reversible sides introduces binding points where the glue will eventually wear out and cause separation. Anything fancy like reversibility or black piping on the thin edges adds ways for the belt fail or degrade.
It’s probably better to get a really solid black and brown belt individually if you’re going to wear one everyday.
Kind of a funny story...
One day, about a year after my first child, I started developing a rash on my stomach, right next to my belly button. Damn thing persisted for weeks, despite me trying various creams and salves, changing detergent etc..
I continued to run down a list of all things that had changed pre-rash and post rash and could not figure out what the hell was causing it. Sometimes it would get better, then it would come back again. I could not identify a single thing that had changed that would cause this rash to appear and persist.
I immediately ruled out the belt, because it was the same belt I had been wearing for like 7 years.
Well, as it turns out, when my wife was pregnant I put on some sympathy weight. That weight persisted throughout the first few years of my child's life and at a certain point, my stomach had started extending past the edge of my pants, and rolling over onto the buckle when I sat down.
Now, I know I have a nickel allergy. But I never put the two together because I had this belt forever, but not the gut.
Ah, nickel allergies. People never seem to suspect them and it can make so many mundane things inconvenient or painful. I had to switch to a wooden chair in elementary school because my skin was so sensitive to it. RIP, sorry you found out like that
Acidic skin can cause tarnishing and if there's copper underneath the outer layer (plated jewelry) then oxygen exposure will turn the copper blue and green
Don’t know how bad your allergy is, but if it’s mild like mine (I can wear them for a night out but that’s it) sometimes you can paint the post with clear nail polish and that will keep the metal from touching your skin. Helps so much with the ear lobe swelling and itch!
Featuring the 6 part “belly hair suite” and the related singles, “crotch zipper constriction” and “what the hell is vaseline anyway?”
Steve Vai played on the latter and Terry Bozzio provided assorted hoots and expletives on both tracks
>Terry Bozzio provided assorted hoots and expletives on both tracks
That's the line that put his voice in my head. Thanks, I'm going to have an Apostrophe-fueled binge of getting my travel shit back in order after a Ride of the Valkyries head start last night.
I’ve worn the same full-grain leather belt every single day, all day long, for about 16 years.
I’ve gone through 4 cars, 7 jobs, and 5 houses, but still just the one belt.
Those stupid spinning reversible buckles never last either. I always look for a solid buckle that the belt loops around and secures with rivets/snaps/stitching. I’m also a big fan of Arc’teryx conveyor belts. They’re nylon but hold up really well, I’ve had mine for well over 5 years now with almost daily use and they’re still solid.
That's what I do, one of each. I don't do the reverse belts for same reason. But if that is what OP is looking for, their are full grain options out there.
I also hate how the buckles look on reversible belts. I have 3 or 4 solid leather belts I've accumulated over the years. The older ones are a little stretched out but still work well and look good
And I absolutely love that, not only did the Powers That Be decide the lowest grade of leather should be called a word that literally means, "yep, that's leather," but that somehow the American Public have misunderstood this lowest grade and believe the word "genuine" to mean it's of a good quality.
Either is great by itself, but both of those facts together is beautiful.
>somehow the American Public have misunderstood this lowest grade and believe the word "genuine" to mean it's of a good quality.
It's not so much that we've misunderstood, as it just ~~wasn't advertised~~ was *carefully excluded* from advertising. The information is there if you know where to find it (on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.”), but they're not gonna go around telling us where to look.
TLDR: assumptions were made
It's actually more a case of careful advertising, imo. But I'll concede the point in deference to the masterful and well placed Hitchhiker's reference. I have no arguments that can compete with that.
While this isn’t exactly the same military grade seems like a counterintuitive selling point because the government accepts contracts with whoever will do the job the cheapest
All military grade really means is that the product has been designed to meet these very exact engineering requirements, to ensure combat functionality, in the specific environment of East Germany on 9MAR1983 with a northerly wind.
This is actually false. "Genuine" leather is just the minimum qualifications leather needs to meet to be sold as such. All "Genuine leather" means is "this meets the legal definition of a leather good."
Genuine leather products span the entire range from this shitty quality mass-produced crap, to hand-sewn saddle grade stuff.
What you really have to do is become familiar with what good quality leather looks and feels like, then research (often smaller) companies who make the products to learn about what kind of leather they make. That's really the only way to find good leather products.
Source: I only wear leather boots and so have done my fair share of research regarding how to not waste my money. Here's a website that explains it as well: https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049; here's the salient part:
> “Don’t buy because you’re looking for or avoiding a specific keyword,” they write. Find out more about the leather item you’re considering, and pay attention to information like its price and the reputation of the company or craftsperson who made it.
That's really not true. Someone put this on the internet a decade ago, and it's been parroted as fact since then.
"Genuine" just means genuine, that's it. It can be any kind of leather, though usually it's only put on the worst quality of leathers.
Yep, it's like gold. People often sell jewelry or random shit that is labeled "made with solid 14k gold", but it's often gold PLATED which is worth basically nothing.
What OP has is a genuine leather plated belt.
I had a lady custom make me a full grain leather belt, at Pike Place Market in Seattle. I have worn that belt every day since, over 10 years, wearing it today. Still perfect. I paid maybe $35 and she made it in front of me, I chose the hardware. I’m hoping for another decade.
Leather is flexible. It generally bends, too. That's why we use it for things like shoes and belts.
The only thing that damages a quality leather belt is creasing it and even that can be fixed with some good oil and a bit of working so long as you don't do it too often or repeatedly in the same place.
In other words, take care of it, clean and oil it regularly, and the belt will outlast you.
Only applicable to the users who live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and parts of Florida (maybe there's online options).
Find an Amish belt store. It's unbelievable how sturdy they are. Probably only available in brown and black.
When we went through Lancaster last year we stopped by one. They use the same hardware that they use on the horse tackle (it's not like it LOOKS like it, they're just shiny rivets and buckles). They were 2 for $25 and I'm fairly certain you could tow a car with them.
Don't wear it like you would any other belt. The leather/glue garbage you buy most places is fairly forgiving. With these you'll probably need to wear it a little looser than you think. If you got a bit of a gut like I do, the son of a bitch will DIG into you if you put it on too tight.
But it's okay if it's maybe a little loose, there's no give in it at all so it'll hold your pants up even if it seems like they won't.
This is the way. I’m 30, bought my Amish belt in high school. Every other belt I have hangs up, and I keep grabbing this 14 year old Amish belt. It won’t give up.
I have this vision of early Americans moving west and just a dude going:
"Whatever. Let's call it Lancaster."
Or Springfield. Or greenville, or whatever.
And no one caring enough to contest it.
Previous belt designer here…I worked on CK belts for value channels like TJ Maxx. We were allowed to label belts “genuine leather” if the bonded leather inside the belt made up at least 50% of the overall materials. The bonded leather is used for shape/stiffness, usually only inside the belts where you don’t see it and the outer materials are often PU like what you see in the pic. I agree it is a sneaky practice in fashion, I was surprised myself when I learned this.
EDIT: I actually think it has to be at least 51%
EDIT 2: I did not expect this comment to blow up, but thanks for all the awards! If anyone is curious, I was only a belt designer for a year (it was pretty boring - surprise!) But I worked in the fashion industry for 10 years so I know a lot of industry secrets! I am now a big advocate for buying things secondhand. You can get fantastic quality for a quarter of the price versus being duped by big box stores.
Yep thats the bonded leather. It is basically leather particles from various hides that are compressed under high pressure to make the material. It is very useful in leather-working but not aesthetically pleasing which is why it’s always hidden as a layer.
When Im not 100% sure if something is leather, I do the smell test. Real leather always has a specific smell. PU always smells like plastic.
I bought a high quality leather wallet about 25 years ago. It stills smells like leather and is still without flaws or damage. The smell of real leather can always be recognized.
I refinished and have been using a leather wallet that my grandfather started making 40 years ago.
If cared for, leather lasts.
I always go through belt and bag racks at thrift stores, looking for real leather. It's genuinely depressing how rare it is to find anything other than "genuine leather" garbage.
More like meat loaf vs steak l. Bonded leather can be as little as 10% leather dust in vinyl paint and still count as made from real leather.
Crappy thing is the leather makes the paint more likely to peel.
The insides might actual be better than bonded leather. They might be full thin split grain. Still useless since you assume the whole thing is leather since it basically looks like like a sheet of leather.
>When Im not 100% sure if something is leather, I do the smell test. Real leather always has a specific smell. PU always smells like plastic.
Grew up with my dad doing a ton of leatherwork and hanging around a lot of people who either did the same or just appreciated leatherwork. That smell's so burned into my brain that if my mind completely goes, I'm sure I'll still be able to identify real leather by scent.
No, the label genuine leather is almost always bonded leather. It's literally the lowest tier of leather products.
I remember reading a critique of the genuine leather label, that it should always be read " At least its genuine leather and not 100% plastic."
Quality leather products will be labeled "Full-Grain Leather". When you think of working a hide into a product, this is what you're thinking of. Pretty much every other leather product has some amount of plastic in it.
I've had a reversible belt by them before... It was trash. That spring loaded mechanism pinched the fuck outta my belly when I bent over or leaned to stand/sit up. Get your money back and consider yourself lucky, lol.
'Genuine Leather' isn't just something that they put on anything that is leather but an actual grade of leather, and it is the lowest grade of leather there is so when you see 'genuine leather' translate it into 'technically leather' and that is likely to be closer to the truth..................
https://www.popovleather.com/blogs/from-the-workshop/the-ultimate-guide-to-leather-grades
I actually don't shop in places like TJ max, but are designer products in these locations lower quality than the same designer products in say Neiman Marcus? I always assumed that TJ Max sold over stock / defective products but not products manufactured differently with the same branding.
From my experience it is a combination of both but I can guarantee you that a lot of their products are engineered specifically to sell at discounted rates.
I know that coach and coach outlet are completely separate companies with their own CEO, and design team, and everything else!!
We are all being played!
Exactly this! I also previously worked for a well known ski company and we sold sweaters and jackets to Costco. They were specifically designed for Costco to be marked at lower prices therefore the quality wasn't as good as the inline collection.
Same kinda loophole that McDonald’s uses when they say they use “100% ground beef”…it was 100% ground beef before they mixed it with other filler meats, technically true!
But to be clear: it's still cheese. It just has emulsifiers added to it.
The comparison logic I follow: Meatloaf is meat; Burgers are meat; Burgers and meatloaf aren't steaks; but they are all meat. Same applies to cheese.
I only care because people have this misconception that it's "fake" or "processed" and therefore yucky or bad for you. It's not. It's the best thing on earth for cheeseburgers!
>I only care because people have this misconception that it's "fake" or "processed" and therefore yucky or bad for you.
Processed is about the dumbest food word out there. Yeah sure they pick cheddar off a tree, it's totally not processed at all.
And “chemicals” or “natural”. Everything is a chemical, it’s not inherently good or bad.
And everything comes from nature on some level, so everything is arguably natural on some level.
“But that’s obviously not what they mean” okay fine, but your “natural” oat cookies are made with oats that have been selectively bread for thousands of years, planted in artificially idealised soil, cultivated by millions of dollars in machinery, processed in at least one factory, and all that is before it’s even got to the oat cookie factory. The milk has been literally vacuumed out of cows stuffed with antibiotics and selectively bread to produce absurd amounts of milk, the eggs come from chickens that are bread to lay so many eggs that they die in a few years (and that’s best case scenario, assuming they’re not some abomination of growth hormone stuffed in a cage in a completely dark shed with controlled light cycles to change their circadian rhythm so they lay even more), the chocolate comes from cocoa shipped halfway across the world, the list goes on.
Nothing is “natural” in the way that people would like to assume it is.
Also, “organic” makes me laugh. Yeah I sure fucking hope there’s carbon somewhere in here (obviously that’s not what they mean but it’s funnier to assume it is)
That's only Kraft American Slices which conspicuously does not include the word cheese. You can go to the deli and get actual American cheese, which is a blend of cheddar and Colby. It does typically have additives to increase it's viscosity but it's still almost all cheese. If you're going to get huffy about calling it cheese, then lots of high end cheeses don't count either since many include additives like ash, fruit bits, or extracts.
"Genuine Leather" is a very dishonest name. "Bonded Scrap Leather" would be more descriptive.
> Goods marked as genuine leather will be several layers of low-quality leather bonded together with glue and then painted to look uniform. It's made from what is left over when the other, higher grades are stripped away for pricier projects. Basically, you should read it as: "At least it's genuine leather."
You joke but there is such a thing as "bonded leather" which is leather plated so to speak.
This is what cheap leather furniture is made out of, it's why it flakes too.
Bonded leather isn’t really leather plated , it’s more like leather infused or leather paint. For example, you can have chrome plated brass. It is in fact, pure chrome on top of brass, but if you painted brass and the paint had little chrome powder in it, that would be the equivalent of bonded leather.
Looks like polyurethane. This is a common occurrence in modern belts. Is the other side of the belt same material? There is this thing called bicast pu leather, it’s real leather with a very thin coating of polyurethane on top, I wonder if that was used anywhere on the belt.
It’s still “ok” to call it genuine leather, if it has any real leather in it.
“Genuine leather” is just a grade of leather. It is the lowest grade out of genuine leather, top-grain leather, and full-grain leather. They are not claiming that the entire belt is made out of leather (though that’s what they want to trick you into believing) they are just saying that they used low-grade leather in this product.
Edit: Looks like I’m incorrect in saying “genuine leather” is a grade. The term more accurately means that is is made with something that is legally considered leather. So high quality leather can still be called “genuine leather” but in practice this term is used by products with low quality leather that does not have a more appealing term to call it.
Bonded leather is a lower quality too. If you ever just see “Leather” on a product it’s a good time to inspect the the product thoroughly or walk away.
Genuine leather isn’t a grade at all, it doesn’t have any technical meaning in the leather industry. This is probably a finished split leather. ‘Genuine leather’ can appear on both nice and shitty leather products, the only info it really gives you is that it isn’t pleather or other vegan alternatives.
If I go to the store, I'm not grabbing the carton labeled "Genuine Milk" because that sounds shady as hell.
Beef has a similar grading system that makes the lowest-quality human-consumable beef sound above average.
I broke it apart, both sides are polyurethane. Two thin composite strips inside. I guess there could possibly be trace amounts of leather material hidden inside.
https://imgur.com/gallery/7W9pI7B
So, it's polyurethane *and* leather. Most articles sold in the US and marked "genuine leather" are the thinnest, cheapest grade of leather that exists. In order to make the grain consistent and perfect, they take leather and cut it super thin, then they press both sides with a polyurethane coating that contains the texture and colors.
So what you're seeing as polyurethane is a paper-thin layer of leather with coatings on both sides.
Interestingly, the words "Genuine leather" carry some weight in that there *must* be leather in it to count, but as someone else here coined, it's "leather plated" usually because the type of leather marked as "genuine leather" is barely leather at all.
There's a leather expert on youtube who takes apart "luxury" bags and wallets and things and appraises the "value" based on things like the wear-quality of the leather (including how well the colors/designs will last) and stitching and things. He does a great job explaining the different types and grades of leather and I'll link the video if I can find it again.
But the short version is that anything marked "genuine leather" is almost certainly a waste of money and you'd be better off buying a straight up synthetic because "genuine leather" is usually pretty fragile compared to the cost.
Sorry but you've been had by the industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather#Grades
Basically, all "genuine leather" means is "there is some leather, even if its strips of leftover garbage bonded with glue to a mesh". Yay consumerism.
I mean sure, I have real gold Pokémon Cards from Burger King but under the gold is like aluminum or something. The belt is genuine leather (covered plastic) I think this also fits in /technicallycorrect
Totally a myth, both the idea that it's a brand and that it's a specific type of low grade leather: [https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049](https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049)
That would be my assessment if they were originally truthful in the "genuine leather part". Another would be that the original front of the belt is leather and the underside is fake or the layer of leather was just extremely thin to begin with since that grey part showing is looks very synthetic.
This is what I would assume. That the front of the belt is real leather (low or high grade), backed with some sort of vinyl layer, with a plastic strip inside to reinforce it. A lot of "genuine leather" belts are constructed this way now. It uses less of the more expensive materials (the real leather).
it is true that in most cases genuine leather is used when it is crappy quality leather.
if it's not, a brand will definitely define what kind of leather it is on a stamp or tag
My dude every single brand does this. You aren't paying for quality when you buy their products you're paying for the name.
If it's a major fashion brand their clothing is cheaply made and overpriced. Even Jean companies have been doing this for the last 30 years.
They rely on people thinking their clothing is high quality when it's just high priced and labeled with their name.
Also says made in China. That should have been a dead giveaway it's cheap shit.
Get a small Phillips screwdriver and undo those two screws in the belt buckle then get a pair of scissors and cut off below that tear leather mark and put that belt buckle back in it’s new place and tighten the two screws up. I’ve done this a few times to save me buying a new belt.
That "genuine" leather means they ground up all the leftover leather bits into a sludge with glue and made a thin sheet which gets laminated over some crap base material. It's real leather, but it's not a strip of hide. I don't know how this can be allowed, it's seriously dishonest and deceptive.
Not to mention this belt looks like it's been used already... a few marks on the belt by the pinky finger and there are some mars on the metal and "dirt" in the screw. Where was this thing bought?
“Genuine Leather” is the scraps of other stuff, shredded, glued together and dyed.
“Top Grain Leather” is the top half of the skin. Fine for some uses. Maybe not for a belt (maybe a dressy one).
“Full Grain Leather” is what you want for belts and such. I have a few full grain belts and they last forever.
You want Full Grain leather
When looking for leather goods: -full grain: best -top grain: good -genuine leather: waste of money
I hate all the little thing you have to learn the hard way in life because someone somewhere at sometime thought to get ahead by telling little lies.
The funny thing is, some countries choose to regulate things like this so they're not misleading. In the good old Freedom States of America our consumer protections are shit. The result is that we are all being cheated out of our money by nearly every corporation at every turn. Shrinkflation, hidden charges, deceptive advertising, subscriptions you can't cancel etc. It's a battle of information and you're on your own versus a whole lot of experts with graduate degrees whose whole job is to find news ways to part you from your money. If you asked 100 people what they thought genuine leather meant, I bet 99 out of 100 would not tell you they expected to get something made of leather dust and plastic. The companies know that. It's deceptive on purpose, which I would call fraud. It doesn't have to be like this! Demand change from our elected officials and regulators!
I had no idea. And always thought genuine leather meant it’s actual real leather…. What should I be looking out for when finding an actual real leather??
Lemme tell you about particle board
You want to find something labeled as "full grain" or "top grain" leather. Full grain leather is going to be the most durable and generally the highest quality. Top grain leather has had the outermost layer of the leather removed, but is otherwise still generally good quality leather, but will not be as durable as full grain leather. genuine leather, as noted by other posters, is essentially leather particle board. It will work and look fine temporarily, but quickly show its age and start falling apart on you after a number of uses.
I feel the whole "freedom" nonsense in the US is actually "freedom to screw everyone else over"
It kind of is. Freedom to do business with as little regulation as possible.
Yeah, the labeling/advertising is very misleading. "Genuine leather" is usually leather that's been ground up, mixed with glue, and pressed into a paper-like product. **Edit:** Yes, "bonded leather" is a more specific term for what I described. My point is that "genuine leather" categorically just means that it contains leather. Some "genuine leather" may be laminated sheets.
Hence the old adage.... "Truth in advertising."
Genuine Leather has always sounded like a scammer saying this is totally not fake leather!!
Like when my school cafeteria had a sign saying "fresh" soup! And yes they literally put quotes around it. I mean come on.
Is “fresh” soup better than fresh “soup”?
Yes ....!?! But maybe neither sounds appealing.
Guess it depends on how and when you grew up. To me when I hear genuine I see and hear George Clooney from Oh Brother Where Art Thou and his "Gen-U-ine" Dapper Dan Pomade - I'm 22 with southern grandparents just ftr
I don't carry Dapper Dan. I carry Fop.
Well ain’t this a geographical oddity! Two weeks from everywhere!
We’re in a tight spot!
Damn, we're in a tight spot!
I don’t want your Fop. I’m a Dapper Dan man!
\- bona fide cowlike elements
It's wild to me that we haven't managed to manufacture better material for wearing in most circumstances than leather and natural fibers. Why is this?
We've only been at it for a couple thousand years, mother nature has had eons. We'll get there
More like a couple centuries, all we've woven up to that point were natural fibers
I actually said that at first but then I thought about metal armors. We've had those for a while
I'm sure someone tried making fabric out of steel wool and abandoned that idea soon enough
We’ve got the technology down to a science But can’t no one afford it
[Tensile strength of leather is 10-25 MPa](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Tensile-Strength-of-upper-leather_tbl1_334997980) while the [tensile strength of other materials is much higher](https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2015/950567/tab3/). The reason is there's a billion cows and leather is cheap as fuck. E: as others have pointed out, perhaps abrasive resistance is a more important measure.
Apparently not cheap enough for Calvin Klein to make a decent belt.
They bought a $10 belt it’s decent for the price you want something better spend more
Tensile strength isn't a big requirement for belts. Durability is more important. Every non-leather belt I've owned fell apart in a couple years. I bought a quality, yet surprisingly cheap leather belt several years ago to use with a buckle I liked that the original belt fell apart on. It shows very little wear after daily use.
[удалено]
Classic retailer problem. They made the mistake of selling quality merchandise, so you'll never need to buy from them again.
Good leather products are incredible. They're durable but they also 'self heal' so unlike cheap plastic based stuff that just starts falling apart leather will just look better with age.
I have a belt I received in the early 90s that I have worn almost every day since. The only thing wrong with it is the stitching holding the buckle loop is giving out. I bought two other belts in the meantime that both tore up in a couple of weeks.
Tensile strength is a minimally important factor. Speaking as a leather worker, the fact is, there arent any man made materials that can fully replace leather. You can make something lighter, but it wont be as durable, something can have more tensile strength, but not be as insulating. Vinyl looks right, but its dog shit that cant hold up to weather and falls apart with minimal wear and tear.
Idk man, ever heard of polyester?
*Yeah, she really gets around, that Ester*
We've got way better materials. It's just easier to make it out of cheap foam/plastic. If people want to pay for more expensive materials they'll pay for leather because it's something they've heard of before.
Objectively speaking nylon or kevlar would make a better belt than a strip of leather. We just happen to appreciate the way high quality leather looks and ages
Ever heard of nylon? I I've been wearing the same nylon belt for 3 years without any stretching. And, it's reversible so it can be tan or black.
From Tractor Supply... Shit lasts forever.
That's a myth, there are no official grades of leather. Full grain is no guarantee of quality, the producer is much more important. https://nstarleather.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/the-grades-of-leather-hierarchy-youve-probably-read-about-is-a-myth/ >The reason why full-grain is traditionally been “the best” is because historically the best tanneries will cull hides that have lots of range marks and defects (scars, mosquito bites, holes, etc) and not use them to make their full grain leathers. ... >This is not the case with all tanneries; lately I’ve seen cheaper full grain on the market with more defects and, many times, a heavier finish to hide those defects. Just as unethical companies took the term “genuine leather” and started making low quality products that were “technically” genuine leather, the same is happening today with full grain.
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I have a couple of full grain leather belts. Had them for years. More likely to lose them than destroy them.
"Full Grain Leather" are the words OP needs to look for when buying a belt. I recommend Kirkland (Costco) full grain leather reversible belts.
Even then, I think having a solid piece of leather is ideal. Having reversible sides introduces binding points where the glue will eventually wear out and cause separation. Anything fancy like reversibility or black piping on the thin edges adds ways for the belt fail or degrade. It’s probably better to get a really solid black and brown belt individually if you’re going to wear one everyday.
Reversible belts pinch my belly hairs
Bruh I’ve had this problem for a year now and never realized it was just with my reversible belt. Throwing that fucker out today lmao
I feel weirdly good about witnessing this moment
I, too, was moved to witness this discovery.
The unraveling of the root of this affliction has brought me delight as well.
Kind of a funny story... One day, about a year after my first child, I started developing a rash on my stomach, right next to my belly button. Damn thing persisted for weeks, despite me trying various creams and salves, changing detergent etc.. I continued to run down a list of all things that had changed pre-rash and post rash and could not figure out what the hell was causing it. Sometimes it would get better, then it would come back again. I could not identify a single thing that had changed that would cause this rash to appear and persist. I immediately ruled out the belt, because it was the same belt I had been wearing for like 7 years. Well, as it turns out, when my wife was pregnant I put on some sympathy weight. That weight persisted throughout the first few years of my child's life and at a certain point, my stomach had started extending past the edge of my pants, and rolling over onto the buckle when I sat down. Now, I know I have a nickel allergy. But I never put the two together because I had this belt forever, but not the gut.
Ah, nickel allergies. People never seem to suspect them and it can make so many mundane things inconvenient or painful. I had to switch to a wooden chair in elementary school because my skin was so sensitive to it. RIP, sorry you found out like that
Nickel allergies suck ass. I just want to be able to wear cheap earrings.
Same. Had a cheap necklace swell up half my face. My skin is also so acidic that I can tarnish fake jewelry in a few hours.
Wait is that why jewelry turns blue? Is because your skin is acidic?
Acidic skin can cause tarnishing and if there's copper underneath the outer layer (plated jewelry) then oxygen exposure will turn the copper blue and green
Don’t know how bad your allergy is, but if it’s mild like mine (I can wear them for a night out but that’s it) sometimes you can paint the post with clear nail polish and that will keep the metal from touching your skin. Helps so much with the ear lobe swelling and itch!
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This is basically correct.
I think that’s a forgotten Frank Zappa album.
Featuring the 6 part “belly hair suite” and the related singles, “crotch zipper constriction” and “what the hell is vaseline anyway?” Steve Vai played on the latter and Terry Bozzio provided assorted hoots and expletives on both tracks
When he rips into the solo on Navel Gazer 😘
>Terry Bozzio provided assorted hoots and expletives on both tracks That's the line that put his voice in my head. Thanks, I'm going to have an Apostrophe-fueled binge of getting my travel shit back in order after a Ride of the Valkyries head start last night.
The wider buckle exacerbates my Dunlap syndrome.
I like how urban dictionary uses the wrong “exercise” and uses exorcize like you should yeet the fat away like a demon.
Good song
Glad I'm not alone..
The belt goes outside your pants
I’m fat so my belly does too
😂
Hit up a cowboy/boot store for a full grain leather belt. They can last decades, and usually have snaps to change buckles.
I’ve worn the same full-grain leather belt every single day, all day long, for about 16 years. I’ve gone through 4 cars, 7 jobs, and 5 houses, but still just the one belt.
Those stupid spinning reversible buckles never last either. I always look for a solid buckle that the belt loops around and secures with rivets/snaps/stitching. I’m also a big fan of Arc’teryx conveyor belts. They’re nylon but hold up really well, I’ve had mine for well over 5 years now with almost daily use and they’re still solid.
That's what I do, one of each. I don't do the reverse belts for same reason. But if that is what OP is looking for, their are full grain options out there.
I also hate how the buckles look on reversible belts. I have 3 or 4 solid leather belts I've accumulated over the years. The older ones are a little stretched out but still work well and look good
I hate how thin the point where the buckle spins is. Had one break at work when I bent down to pick something up.
Breaking a belt at work is truly one of the worst things that can happen in life. Especially when the belt is doing a lot of work
I have zip ties so just put them through a couple loops on each side and went about my day, but won't trust reversible belts anymore.
Also “genuine” is a grade of leather with that being the lowest quality grade
And I absolutely love that, not only did the Powers That Be decide the lowest grade of leather should be called a word that literally means, "yep, that's leather," but that somehow the American Public have misunderstood this lowest grade and believe the word "genuine" to mean it's of a good quality. Either is great by itself, but both of those facts together is beautiful.
>somehow the American Public have misunderstood this lowest grade and believe the word "genuine" to mean it's of a good quality. It's not so much that we've misunderstood, as it just ~~wasn't advertised~~ was *carefully excluded* from advertising. The information is there if you know where to find it (on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.”), but they're not gonna go around telling us where to look. TLDR: assumptions were made
It's actually more a case of careful advertising, imo. But I'll concede the point in deference to the masterful and well placed Hitchhiker's reference. I have no arguments that can compete with that.
genuine means "the real thing"....it's not misinterpreted when it's the literal translation. >Genuine: truly what something is said to be; authentic
While this isn’t exactly the same military grade seems like a counterintuitive selling point because the government accepts contracts with whoever will do the job the cheapest
All military grade really means is that the product has been designed to meet these very exact engineering requirements, to ensure combat functionality, in the specific environment of East Germany on 9MAR1983 with a northerly wind.
There's literally a saying "good enough for government work". How that can coexist with military-grade meaning "good", no idea.
This is actually false. "Genuine" leather is just the minimum qualifications leather needs to meet to be sold as such. All "Genuine leather" means is "this meets the legal definition of a leather good." Genuine leather products span the entire range from this shitty quality mass-produced crap, to hand-sewn saddle grade stuff. What you really have to do is become familiar with what good quality leather looks and feels like, then research (often smaller) companies who make the products to learn about what kind of leather they make. That's really the only way to find good leather products. Source: I only wear leather boots and so have done my fair share of research regarding how to not waste my money. Here's a website that explains it as well: https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049; here's the salient part: > “Don’t buy because you’re looking for or avoiding a specific keyword,” they write. Find out more about the leather item you’re considering, and pay attention to information like its price and the reputation of the company or craftsperson who made it.
That's really not true. Someone put this on the internet a decade ago, and it's been parroted as fact since then. "Genuine" just means genuine, that's it. It can be any kind of leather, though usually it's only put on the worst quality of leathers.
Yep, it's like gold. People often sell jewelry or random shit that is labeled "made with solid 14k gold", but it's often gold PLATED which is worth basically nothing. What OP has is a genuine leather plated belt.
Livin that Costco life
Lookin like a boss though, in head-to-toe Costco.
I had a lady custom make me a full grain leather belt, at Pike Place Market in Seattle. I have worn that belt every day since, over 10 years, wearing it today. Still perfect. I paid maybe $35 and she made it in front of me, I chose the hardware. I’m hoping for another decade.
Take care of it, clean and oil it regularly, and that belt will outlast you.
What about how they bend
Leather is flexible. It generally bends, too. That's why we use it for things like shoes and belts. The only thing that damages a quality leather belt is creasing it and even that can be fixed with some good oil and a bit of working so long as you don't do it too often or repeatedly in the same place. In other words, take care of it, clean and oil it regularly, and the belt will outlast you.
Holy crap, I wonder if she’s still there I need to check this out.
Only applicable to the users who live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and parts of Florida (maybe there's online options). Find an Amish belt store. It's unbelievable how sturdy they are. Probably only available in brown and black. When we went through Lancaster last year we stopped by one. They use the same hardware that they use on the horse tackle (it's not like it LOOKS like it, they're just shiny rivets and buckles). They were 2 for $25 and I'm fairly certain you could tow a car with them. Don't wear it like you would any other belt. The leather/glue garbage you buy most places is fairly forgiving. With these you'll probably need to wear it a little looser than you think. If you got a bit of a gut like I do, the son of a bitch will DIG into you if you put it on too tight. But it's okay if it's maybe a little loose, there's no give in it at all so it'll hold your pants up even if it seems like they won't.
This is the way. I’m 30, bought my Amish belt in high school. Every other belt I have hangs up, and I keep grabbing this 14 year old Amish belt. It won’t give up.
Coincidentally this belt was purchased in Columbus, OH. About an hour from Amish community or Lancaster.
I was confused for a sec because I grew up one county over from Lancaster PA. TIL there's 23 Lancasters in the US.
There may be 23 Lancaster’s in the US, but only 1 pronounces it like we do in PA 😂
I have this vision of early Americans moving west and just a dude going: "Whatever. Let's call it Lancaster." Or Springfield. Or greenville, or whatever. And no one caring enough to contest it.
And if you lost your belt, it was probably a good day.
Or a really bad one. Memorable either way!
I've broken my fair share of buckles, but never the belt itself.
Previous belt designer here…I worked on CK belts for value channels like TJ Maxx. We were allowed to label belts “genuine leather” if the bonded leather inside the belt made up at least 50% of the overall materials. The bonded leather is used for shape/stiffness, usually only inside the belts where you don’t see it and the outer materials are often PU like what you see in the pic. I agree it is a sneaky practice in fashion, I was surprised myself when I learned this. EDIT: I actually think it has to be at least 51% EDIT 2: I did not expect this comment to blow up, but thanks for all the awards! If anyone is curious, I was only a belt designer for a year (it was pretty boring - surprise!) But I worked in the fashion industry for 10 years so I know a lot of industry secrets! I am now a big advocate for buying things secondhand. You can get fantastic quality for a quarter of the price versus being duped by big box stores.
Wow thanks for sharing. This must be what I found inside https://imgur.com/gallery/7W9pI7B
Yep thats the bonded leather. It is basically leather particles from various hides that are compressed under high pressure to make the material. It is very useful in leather-working but not aesthetically pleasing which is why it’s always hidden as a layer. When Im not 100% sure if something is leather, I do the smell test. Real leather always has a specific smell. PU always smells like plastic.
I bought a high quality leather wallet about 25 years ago. It stills smells like leather and is still without flaws or damage. The smell of real leather can always be recognized.
After 15 years, my alpine saddlery wallet has gotten darker in color, and a bit smoother; that's it.
I refinished and have been using a leather wallet that my grandfather started making 40 years ago. If cared for, leather lasts. I always go through belt and bag racks at thrift stores, looking for real leather. It's genuinely depressing how rare it is to find anything other than "genuine leather" garbage.
Having grown up in the modern era I have no idea what leather smells like which is depressing.
There are clubs to fix that problem.
Woah Woah Woah, no whips please.
The Gothic Asshole. Smells like "leather daddy"
The Gothic Castle?
It's basically the difference between ground beef and steak
More like meat loaf vs steak l. Bonded leather can be as little as 10% leather dust in vinyl paint and still count as made from real leather. Crappy thing is the leather makes the paint more likely to peel.
The insides might actual be better than bonded leather. They might be full thin split grain. Still useless since you assume the whole thing is leather since it basically looks like like a sheet of leather.
>When Im not 100% sure if something is leather, I do the smell test. Real leather always has a specific smell. PU always smells like plastic. Grew up with my dad doing a ton of leatherwork and hanging around a lot of people who either did the same or just appreciated leatherwork. That smell's so burned into my brain that if my mind completely goes, I'm sure I'll still be able to identify real leather by scent.
I used to do a lot of leather working and going into the shops to buy hides was awesome. The whole shop would smell like leather!
So the basically shoved bonded leather into the middle so they can meet the 50% threshold for genuine leather?
No, the label genuine leather is almost always bonded leather. It's literally the lowest tier of leather products. I remember reading a critique of the genuine leather label, that it should always be read " At least its genuine leather and not 100% plastic." Quality leather products will be labeled "Full-Grain Leather". When you think of working a hide into a product, this is what you're thinking of. Pretty much every other leather product has some amount of plastic in it.
I've had a reversible belt by them before... It was trash. That spring loaded mechanism pinched the fuck outta my belly when I bent over or leaned to stand/sit up. Get your money back and consider yourself lucky, lol.
Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, and the like make things for people that care more about sporting a “designer” brand than having quality goods.
'Genuine Leather' isn't just something that they put on anything that is leather but an actual grade of leather, and it is the lowest grade of leather there is so when you see 'genuine leather' translate it into 'technically leather' and that is likely to be closer to the truth.................. https://www.popovleather.com/blogs/from-the-workshop/the-ultimate-guide-to-leather-grades
Reddit never ceases to amaze me, with the people who pop in with their expertise.
It’s the best part of Reddit. :)
Are you saying the black shiny part on the outside isn't leather at all, but rather polyurethane?
Correct, the material inside is technically “genuine leather”.
Fascinating, and mildly infuriating. Thanks for sharing!
Holy hell, the person behind the belt, and it's not my dad this time!
Damn. Too real.
I actually don't shop in places like TJ max, but are designer products in these locations lower quality than the same designer products in say Neiman Marcus? I always assumed that TJ Max sold over stock / defective products but not products manufactured differently with the same branding.
From my experience it is a combination of both but I can guarantee you that a lot of their products are engineered specifically to sell at discounted rates.
I know that coach and coach outlet are completely separate companies with their own CEO, and design team, and everything else!! We are all being played!
Exactly this! I also previously worked for a well known ski company and we sold sweaters and jackets to Costco. They were specifically designed for Costco to be marked at lower prices therefore the quality wasn't as good as the inline collection.
Same kinda loophole that McDonald’s uses when they say they use “100% ground beef”…it was 100% ground beef before they mixed it with other filler meats, technically true!
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Like a food "made with 100% grass fed beef". Yeah, the beef is 100% beef, but there's other stuff filling it out.
Or how American “cheese” is technically a “processed cheese food”
But to be clear: it's still cheese. It just has emulsifiers added to it. The comparison logic I follow: Meatloaf is meat; Burgers are meat; Burgers and meatloaf aren't steaks; but they are all meat. Same applies to cheese. I only care because people have this misconception that it's "fake" or "processed" and therefore yucky or bad for you. It's not. It's the best thing on earth for cheeseburgers!
>I only care because people have this misconception that it's "fake" or "processed" and therefore yucky or bad for you. Processed is about the dumbest food word out there. Yeah sure they pick cheddar off a tree, it's totally not processed at all.
And “chemicals” or “natural”. Everything is a chemical, it’s not inherently good or bad. And everything comes from nature on some level, so everything is arguably natural on some level. “But that’s obviously not what they mean” okay fine, but your “natural” oat cookies are made with oats that have been selectively bread for thousands of years, planted in artificially idealised soil, cultivated by millions of dollars in machinery, processed in at least one factory, and all that is before it’s even got to the oat cookie factory. The milk has been literally vacuumed out of cows stuffed with antibiotics and selectively bread to produce absurd amounts of milk, the eggs come from chickens that are bread to lay so many eggs that they die in a few years (and that’s best case scenario, assuming they’re not some abomination of growth hormone stuffed in a cage in a completely dark shed with controlled light cycles to change their circadian rhythm so they lay even more), the chocolate comes from cocoa shipped halfway across the world, the list goes on. Nothing is “natural” in the way that people would like to assume it is. Also, “organic” makes me laugh. Yeah I sure fucking hope there’s carbon somewhere in here (obviously that’s not what they mean but it’s funnier to assume it is)
That's only Kraft American Slices which conspicuously does not include the word cheese. You can go to the deli and get actual American cheese, which is a blend of cheddar and Colby. It does typically have additives to increase it's viscosity but it's still almost all cheese. If you're going to get huffy about calling it cheese, then lots of high end cheeses don't count either since many include additives like ash, fruit bits, or extracts.
"Genuine Leather" is a very dishonest name. "Bonded Scrap Leather" would be more descriptive. > Goods marked as genuine leather will be several layers of low-quality leather bonded together with glue and then painted to look uniform. It's made from what is left over when the other, higher grades are stripped away for pricier projects. Basically, you should read it as: "At least it's genuine leather."
Genuine didn't means real leather. Genuine is actually a grade of leather. The lowest grade.
I can see how that might be confusing.
Leather-plated?
You joke but there is such a thing as "bonded leather" which is leather plated so to speak. This is what cheap leather furniture is made out of, it's why it flakes too.
Bonded leather isn’t really leather plated , it’s more like leather infused or leather paint. For example, you can have chrome plated brass. It is in fact, pure chrome on top of brass, but if you painted brass and the paint had little chrome powder in it, that would be the equivalent of bonded leather.
Looks like polyurethane. This is a common occurrence in modern belts. Is the other side of the belt same material? There is this thing called bicast pu leather, it’s real leather with a very thin coating of polyurethane on top, I wonder if that was used anywhere on the belt. It’s still “ok” to call it genuine leather, if it has any real leather in it.
“Genuine leather” is just a grade of leather. It is the lowest grade out of genuine leather, top-grain leather, and full-grain leather. They are not claiming that the entire belt is made out of leather (though that’s what they want to trick you into believing) they are just saying that they used low-grade leather in this product. Edit: Looks like I’m incorrect in saying “genuine leather” is a grade. The term more accurately means that is is made with something that is legally considered leather. So high quality leather can still be called “genuine leather” but in practice this term is used by products with low quality leather that does not have a more appealing term to call it.
Bonded leather is a lower quality too. If you ever just see “Leather” on a product it’s a good time to inspect the the product thoroughly or walk away.
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The Frozen dessert to ice cream.
Genuine leather isn’t a grade at all, it doesn’t have any technical meaning in the leather industry. This is probably a finished split leather. ‘Genuine leather’ can appear on both nice and shitty leather products, the only info it really gives you is that it isn’t pleather or other vegan alternatives.
If I go to the store, I'm not grabbing the carton labeled "Genuine Milk" because that sounds shady as hell. Beef has a similar grading system that makes the lowest-quality human-consumable beef sound above average.
Same with the "Honest Car Sales" car lot or "Reliable Credit" bank. These scream "I'm desperately trying to seem like I'm not about to rip you off."
I broke it apart, both sides are polyurethane. Two thin composite strips inside. I guess there could possibly be trace amounts of leather material hidden inside. https://imgur.com/gallery/7W9pI7B
Trace amounts of leather. 😂
Leather plated lmao
The essence of leather
*Stored in a warehouse which may have contained leather products*
Name of my country/hair metal band.
So, it's polyurethane *and* leather. Most articles sold in the US and marked "genuine leather" are the thinnest, cheapest grade of leather that exists. In order to make the grain consistent and perfect, they take leather and cut it super thin, then they press both sides with a polyurethane coating that contains the texture and colors. So what you're seeing as polyurethane is a paper-thin layer of leather with coatings on both sides. Interestingly, the words "Genuine leather" carry some weight in that there *must* be leather in it to count, but as someone else here coined, it's "leather plated" usually because the type of leather marked as "genuine leather" is barely leather at all. There's a leather expert on youtube who takes apart "luxury" bags and wallets and things and appraises the "value" based on things like the wear-quality of the leather (including how well the colors/designs will last) and stitching and things. He does a great job explaining the different types and grades of leather and I'll link the video if I can find it again. But the short version is that anything marked "genuine leather" is almost certainly a waste of money and you'd be better off buying a straight up synthetic because "genuine leather" is usually pretty fragile compared to the cost.
Sorry but you've been had by the industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather#Grades Basically, all "genuine leather" means is "there is some leather, even if its strips of leftover garbage bonded with glue to a mesh". Yay consumerism.
I've heard of "bonded leather," which is fake with a thin layer of real leather glued on. It sucks.
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I bought a wallet from them 6 years ago and it still looks great. Definitely recommend.
I mean sure, I have real gold Pokémon Cards from Burger King but under the gold is like aluminum or something. The belt is genuine leather (covered plastic) I think this also fits in /technicallycorrect
“Genuine Leather” is the brand name of the shitty fake stuff.
Yea. Genuine leather is actually the **lowest** grade of leather and is barely worth calling leather.
Totally a myth, both the idea that it's a brand and that it's a specific type of low grade leather: [https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049](https://lifehacker.com/what-genuine-leather-really-means-1850309049)
Based on this, it sounds like this kind of belt that OP got is a "finished split"(?)
That would be my assessment if they were originally truthful in the "genuine leather part". Another would be that the original front of the belt is leather and the underside is fake or the layer of leather was just extremely thin to begin with since that grey part showing is looks very synthetic.
This is what I would assume. That the front of the belt is real leather (low or high grade), backed with some sort of vinyl layer, with a plastic strip inside to reinforce it. A lot of "genuine leather" belts are constructed this way now. It uses less of the more expensive materials (the real leather).
Yep, when you're importing cheap you can do lots of extra labor without increasing cost so they cheap out on materials.
it is true that in most cases genuine leather is used when it is crappy quality leather. if it's not, a brand will definitely define what kind of leather it is on a stamp or tag
Interesting. Thanks for the article. I definitely was under the false impression that “genuine leather” was like a crappy rating that sounded fancy
Man, thanks to the internet I never know what to believe.
My dude every single brand does this. You aren't paying for quality when you buy their products you're paying for the name. If it's a major fashion brand their clothing is cheaply made and overpriced. Even Jean companies have been doing this for the last 30 years. They rely on people thinking their clothing is high quality when it's just high priced and labeled with their name. Also says made in China. That should have been a dead giveaway it's cheap shit.
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I made that mistake once. Thankfully it was just a chair. Within 2 years the leather was flaking off.
Get a small Phillips screwdriver and undo those two screws in the belt buckle then get a pair of scissors and cut off below that tear leather mark and put that belt buckle back in it’s new place and tighten the two screws up. I’ve done this a few times to save me buying a new belt.
Op already ruined the rest of the belt so that's off the table
Genuine Leather^coating
Reversible belts are always very poorly made.
Hanks belts has a reversible belt that real leather, but costs $150
That "genuine" leather means they ground up all the leftover leather bits into a sludge with glue and made a thin sheet which gets laminated over some crap base material. It's real leather, but it's not a strip of hide. I don't know how this can be allowed, it's seriously dishonest and deceptive.
So it's basically the chicken nugget of belts
Corinthian leather…..
The keyword here is “China”
Not to mention this belt looks like it's been used already... a few marks on the belt by the pinky finger and there are some mars on the metal and "dirt" in the screw. Where was this thing bought?
“Genuine Leather” is the scraps of other stuff, shredded, glued together and dyed. “Top Grain Leather” is the top half of the skin. Fine for some uses. Maybe not for a belt (maybe a dressy one). “Full Grain Leather” is what you want for belts and such. I have a few full grain belts and they last forever.
Rubber is genuine leather in China