Who needs a boyfriend when you have Baelts? (UPDATED)

About five months ago, one of the owner of Baelts: Florian Gypser contacted me asking if I wanted a sample of their product—that is a belt, hence, the company name “Baelts”; without even thinking about it, I accepted his offer. I was exhilarated when, after months of silently wishing for someone to contact me and send me free products, it finally happened. I even was afraid to tell about it to anyone, not even to my family because I have this irrational fear that if I tell someone I am getting something or that something good is going to happen in my life—it won’t happen. I was tight-lipped about that offer for quite awhile until I can’t hold anymore the steam from escaping out the pot, I eventually told anyone whom I was close with.

On to the product review, it came in a typical post office carton box and my details written on it. Philippines has an infamous post office because stories have been circling that they open your packages and steal your items, luckily, I have the belt, or so I believe because I don’t know what other stuffs Florian sent me, so PhilPost you didn’t disappoint me.

When I opened the package, it emanates the smell of leather; it consisted of a dust bag, which housed the belt, and the docking station and tools—which I will be discussing furthermore in this post. The dust bag, I have to say, is so amazing—maybe you’re thinking, “why is it amazing when it is so understated?”… EXACTLY! Its subtlety adds the phenomenal beauty of the overall presentation of their product. It is down-to-earth, giving the consumer this feeling that it is not factory-produced which is true because Florian and his team focus on providing high quality handcrafted belts—and that is when they got me sold. Mass-producing products significantly diminishes its quality and big companies nowadays focus on quantity rather than on providing decent products. First impressions last, so you have to nail it the first time.

One of the cool features of their product is that it comes with a docking station so that your Baelts belt would have its own rightful place in your closet; you simply have to hook in your closet rack and the job is done. On the front side it has a stud where you can securely attach your Baelts belt on it and on the other side, it comes with magnets that will ensure you that your adjusting tools for your Baelts belt will be lost-proof.

Then you’ll have the actual belt: Made out of veg-tanned water buffalo leather, produced in Thailand and crafted into a belt until it meets your standards. The belt itself is in this faded salmon color and as it age it will turn into this dark cognac brown color—I cannot wait for that to happen. The best thing about their product is that it is custom-made and you can add your little touch on it may it be your name, your brand logo or, basically, anything.

Talking about the logo, the first time I saw it, I was in awe because having my brand I worked so hard for so long engraved to an accessory I wear almost everyday is utterly one of the best things in life; it gave me a sense of pride because I feel like I was the artisan who engraved that logo. The belt has two ends: on the other end it has the 3 big holes for the studs to enter and then your logo; on the opposite side, the stud itself, the big hole for the docking station, small holes so that you can adjust the size to give you that snug fit and the Baelts name.

The purpose of one of the tools was so that you can unscrew the stud and change its positioning using the small holes to fit the belt to your liking. The other tool, I don’t know anything of but all I know is that they are tools for belt adjustments.

What makes a Baelts belt different?

Baelts brags that their belts are lighter than the conventional ones and that it doesn’t have buckles. The first thought that came into my mind was that: is the Baelts buckle-less movement something new? Because there already exist belts where instead of using buckles to lock the belt in place, they used studs, which is the same thing as the Baelts’ minus the stylish buckles.

The cons of the product:

• Due to its material, it is harder to lock it in place because it would take medium pressure and a sore thumb just to secure it—or at least that is what I experienced.
• If you adjust the studs it leaves this black mark on the belt, which probably decreases its physical attributes.
• Although it rarely happens but what if you went from size six to a 16, would the belt still fit given the limited notches it has?
• I’ve read reviews about veg-tanned water buffalo leather, they said that if tanned properly, it would endure tearing and will age beautifully, but if not, its useful years will be cut short. Not that I’m saying Baelts does not dedicate their craftsmanship to their product, what I mean is that I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt since I was not there when they started curating this product.

I would say, overall, it is Vogue Engineer approved. I give it four stars out of five.

UPDATE:

I finally know the function of that slender tool that came with the Baelts; it’s the punching tool, it is used, of course, to punch so that if you gain weight for no absolute reason, you can just punch some notches to accommodate your new waistline. Another bonus that comes with the Belts is that the screw on your docking tool can also be interchange with the stud on your belt—can this get any cooler?—so that you can switch from metal to brass anytime you like.

Visit their Kickstarter page and pledge: Baelts: The belt, rebuilt