"Genuine" Leather

[CelticPrint]

Broke my old belt after 5 years of daily use. Wife found these new belts for sale at 4-5 bucks a piece, they say "Genuine Leather" but the cat quickly found something else underneath. After just a quick scratch I was able to pull a very thin ply of some synthetic black material off of what feels like some kind of press board, like what 30 pack beer cartons are made out of. At this point since I saved my old hardware I'm going to make a new belt for less than 10 bucks out of veg tan but I'm left wondering, what are these belts made out of?

Edited January 20, 2019 by CelticPrint

[benlilly1]

Interesting...you'll be better off with your own redo!

[CelticPrint]

Right, the hardware alone would have cost me the same but I'll save that for a future project. I have a different buckle off an old "Guess" belt that you can reverse the buckle to use both sides of the belt, I'll emboss one side of the belt and leave the other side gloss black. It's a cool option on a buckle, let's you get two belts out of one piece of hardware.

[jcuk]

This is a family friendly forum so i won't tell you what i think its made from, and you know what they say buy cheap buy twice.

 

Hope this helps

JCUK

[DJole]

Cheese...I think they are made out of cheese!
They do indeed have genuine leather, but it's just a thin cosmetic layer to hide the cheese. 

Edited January 20, 2019 by DJole

[fredk]

If its anything similar to stuff I was given about 20 years ago; its reconstituted compressed card spray coated with a PVC liquid. 

A factory in Belfast which made similar closed down about 20 years ago and I was given a van load of belts. They were all marked 'Genuine Leather'. I used a load on toy shields then had the remainder burnt on a bonfire

[CelticPrint]

1 minute ago, fredk said:

If its anything similar to stuff I was given about 20 years ago; its reconstituted compressed card spray coated with a PVC liquid. 

A factory in Belfast which made similar closed down about 20 years ago and I was given a van load of belts. They were all marked 'Genuine Leather'. I used a load on toy shields then had the remainder burnt on a bonfire

That's pretty much what these feel like. 

[Matt S]

1 hour ago, CelticPrint said:

Broke my old belt after 5 years of daily use. Wife found these new belts for sale at 4-5 bucks a piece, they say "Genuine Leather" but the cat quickly found something else underneath. After just a quick scratch I was able to pull a very thin ply of some synthetic black material off of what feels like some kind of press board, like what 30 pack beer cartons are made out of. At this point since I saved my old hardware I'm going to make a new belt for less than 10 bucks out of veg tan but I'm left wondering, what are these belts made out of?

Does it t say "leather" anywhere on the belt itself? It may be that the dangler tag is the only piece that used to moo. I've found this myself, on very cheap shoes.

[benlilly1]

49 minutes ago, Matt S said:

Does it t say "leather" anywhere on the belt itself? It may be that the dangler tag is the only piece that used to moo. I've found this myself, on very cheap shoes.

Ha! Good point!

[NVLeatherWorx]

3 hours ago, CelticPrint said:

Broke my old belt after 5 years of daily use. Wife found these new belts for sale at 4-5 bucks a piece, they say "Genuine Leather" but the cat quickly found something else underneath. After just a quick scratch I was able to pull a very thin ply of some synthetic black material off of what feels like some kind of press board, like what 30 pack beer cartons are made out of. At this point since I saved my old hardware I'm going to make a new belt for less than 10 bucks out of veg tan but I'm left wondering, what are these belts made out of?

If you really want to know how these are made then I can lay it out for you but suffice it to say that there is absolutely NO leather elements on these belts at all.  Even though the thin top layer/cover feels, looks, and sometimes even smells like leather, it ain't and there is no changing that fact.  I would hazard a guess that even the "dangler" is made from an artificial material.  These types of belts are so cheap to buy that it makes it a bit tougher to try and get anyone to listen to you about the advantage of buying a belt that you make so I have several commercially produced belts, some leather but most not, that I have with me to every show and market that I attend and I have partially disassembled each one to show the buyer how they are made.  I even have big designer names on my example rack and they are not made as finely as one would believe.  Most of the time the example rack experience gets the point across and it is a great thing when you can finally see that "the lights are on and somebody is home" but there are also those who couldn't find the switch if you put their hand on it for them and these dimwits will continue to think that there is still value in replacing their belt that is made from recycled cereal boxes every few months.