I’m not Batman, but I do carry a lot of things on my belt. Every day.
When you carry a lot of gear, a lot of heavy gear, you need a belt that can hold up to it. Little flimsy dress/cosmetic apparel belts from most department stores will not cut it. I’ve been wearing belts from The Belt Man for some years now. 1.5″ wide, the horsehide one is my favorite because it doesn’t cost much more than bullhide but has held up fairly strong… even after years of daily wear and some softening up, it’s still stiff enough and holding form enough to do what I need to do.
Except….
Deal with my weight fluctuation. 🙂
With all my weight lifting and the associated food shoveling, of course I’m gaining weight. This requires adjustment of the belt. 🙂 Depending where my weight is and how I’m fiddling with my diet, the belt might hook into hole #2 or maybe hole #3, but most of the times I wish it could hook into hole #2.5. It’s either just a little too loose or a little too tight. I try my belt with the 1″-spaced holes, then the one with the 0.75″-spaced holes and just can’t get things right to both feel comfortable and properly support the gear I wear.
So I gave in.
A couple of days ago I was at GT Distributors and bought a Wilderness Tactical Original Instructor Belt. Appears to be the 1.5″ 5-stitch model, black of course. Why do I not want something like this? Because I don’t like wearing nylon. I like leather belts, leather shoes, cotton, and other natural materials. Sure I can’t be 100% that way, but I prefer it when I can. I mean, wearing a nylon belt with a Brooks Brothers suit just doesn’t seem right, does it? But the advantage here is it buckles anywhere you want it, almost infinitely adjustable, and right now that’s something I need.
I wore it for the first time yesterday and found it quite nice that I could get the tightness just where I wanted. Tight enough to hold things, loose enough to be comfortable. The interesting thing? I’ve been wondering if I needed to adjust my holster or perhaps consider a replacement. But now with the new belt? Things felt a lot better, nothing shifting around or feeling uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s the belt tension or perhaps… the belt. Being leather and worn constantly, my main Beltman belt has of course stretched and conformed somewhat to my body, so it’s not exactly a flat, even belt any more. Could it have changed shape enough that it doesn’t work for me any more? Or maybe conforms to the shape of my pre-weightlifting body? Hard to say… would be interesting to have a brand new belt for comparison. Who knows… the lack of stretching and changing may wind me up with using a nylon “tactical” belt for EDC saving the leather for occasions where I need it (e.g. dressing up).
I’m going to spend today out at KR Training and I’ll be wearing the new belt. We’ll see how it goes.
Stuff From Hsoi 
You could try the always classy belt suspenders look.
I’m really liking my Comp-tac belt with the kydex stiffener inside. When you run out of ammo you could beat someone with it. Holds everything nice and still, but it is too big for my phone case to clip to.
I second the Comp-Tac belt with the kydex insert. It’s a nice alternative to the nylon belts but it’s not cheap.
Hrm. I could see the Kydex keeping shape and preventing the leather from stretching and stressing.
Might consider that. Thanx!
As someone who has experience with the beltman’s horsehide belts would you say they are suitable to wear with dress pants or are they still too casual looking?
In terms of look? I think they are fine, so long as you’ve kept them in good condition. If they’re well-worn, scuffed, etc., probably won’t look good… but then, no belt in that condition would.
The bigger question is, can the dress pants fit the belt? That is, in my experience dress pants tend to have smaller and “tighter” loops. So, you might fit a thin 1″ dress belt in there, but a double-thick 1.5″ belt may not even fit through the loops.