Nylon Ratchet Casual Belt, Coffee

★★★★★

Great every day belt for the money!

Very nice. I was a bit worried that unlike other ratchet belts, this was made of a nylon weave that has vertical ridges built in. I find it more flexible, thinner, and hence more comfortable, and it looks great! Going to add another color.

★★☆☆☆

Excellent belt right up until the buckle breaks.

I really, really like these belts except for the fact that I keep breaking them. The nylon is fine. It holds up well, has the right texture, flexibility, stiffness, strength, etc.. They belt itself holds up better than the Mission-Belt style of ratchet, and it's more flexible. The flexibility is important to me because I need to be able to thread it though belt loops and items I carry on my belt which require it bend to a rather small radius. It can also be adjusted in smaller increments than the Mission-Belt style ratchet, and there's no limit to adjustment. A+ for the belt material. The buckle is a problem. It works well right up until it breaks. If they used just a tiny bit more material in the weak spot, or a slightly stronger alloy, or made it from stamped steel rather than zinc pot-metal, it'd hold up fine. There are a bunch of companies selling what appears to be the same buckle, and some advertise that they use two pins in the place that breaks, which is not exactly true from what I've seen. The marketing photo clearly implies they use steel pins that run all the way though the buckle, and that's not the case. On the first buckle I broke, I drilled out the rivet holes and fake rivet holes and ran safety wire through them, and that repair lasted much longer than the original construction did. Eventually the rivet holes themselves wore though and failed. I'd gladly pay significantly more for a deluxe version of this buckle made from steel or at least a better quality alloy. As much as I love these, I'm going to try other styles of buckle rather than keep dealing with these ones failing. I might also stock up on cheap ones when they're on sale and consider them disposable, but I'll need to carry a spare when I travel. I'm not going to pay much for these if I know they're going in the trash in a few months. Credit to Jukmo for warrantying these, but it's a hassle and shouldn't be necessary if they were just built better. One might suggest that I'm too hard on the belt, which is a fair criticism. I'm slightly above average size, I'm strong and I regularly do strenuous activities wearing a belt, so it sometimes needs to work pretty hard. However, they sell these in sizes much larger than I wear, which means they should be able to handle more strain than I subject them to. If you're a smaller person who doesn't demand much from your belt, these will probably last you a long time. As a fashion accessory, the design is fine. As a functional accessory, the design is inadequate. I hope they eventually fix the failure points on these because they really are pretty great otherwise.