KORE Men’s Full-Grain Leather Track Belts | “Intrepid” Stainless Steel Buckle

I am not sure what went wrong here, but the belt was way too big. This did not make much sense considering the size is supposed to be 24 to 44 inches, and I wear size 38 pants and my current regular belt is a size 38 and of the 5 holes provided, I am on the middle hole.The Trackline though, when it came in I removed my regular belt, put on the Trackline, and for a proper fit there was not enough track to get the belt tight. I thought at first I received the wrong size so I double checked, and the sizes listed on the back of the belt indeed went from 24" to 44" providing places to cut the excess slack, however it seemed like maybe the track was put on incorrectly for proper fit? I'm not sure, I sent it back and I guess I will stick to my regular belt.I really wanted this type of belt too, but for $60 there is no way I'm ordering another one just for this to happen again.

I was looking for a decent quality ratchet belt. After getting what information I could online, I settled on Anson and Trackline as the two that looked the most promising. I bought one of each and am posting this review under both products.I’m initially pleased with both. They are both nice looking, and the quality of the belts and buckles appears good. The mechanisms work smoothly and easily. The straps are apparently three ply laminated leather that seems flexible. While the pictures show trimming to size with a scissors, they’re both thick enough that you’re more likely to do a better job with a sharp knife. The only question in my mind is durability, and I’ll certainly add a star to both of them if they last a year under continuous use. Update - a year later and looks nearly new - 5 stars.Differences: The Anson belt is only 30mm wide, not 35mm as advertised. I happened to like narrow light belts, but it’s still downright annoying that the size is misrepresented. The Anson buckle has a metal retaining loop, unlike the Trackline buckle. Since my pants all have a belt loop right in front, that doesn’t matter to me either way. For the Trackline, I sprung the extra $10 for a stainless steel buckle and it seems solid. The Trackline leather seems a bit stiffer than the Anson, so go with Anson for a lighter narrower belt and go with Trackline for a more robust belt that is a full 1-3/8”.

I bought one of these in brown when I needed that color to match my first pair of brown shoes in a while, after perusing various $60-80 belts in the department store. So my goal was just to get a decent brown belt. The TRAKLINE went far beyond my expectations, and is without question the best belt I've ever owned.What this Kickstarter-launched product does, essentially, is take the idea of the old military canvas belts with buckles that can "bite" anywhere on the belt itself -- making for an infinitely adjustable fit and avoiding the need for holes that stretch and tear -- and applied it to a leather belt. The belt has a long strip up the inside with small detents, and the buckle uses a ratcheting metal tongue to lock down and hold the belt in place. Not quite "infinite" adjustment, but the detents are so close together and so many that it you get an incredibly accurate, adjustable fit. The topper, though, is the small lever at the bottom of the buckle that lets you loosen the belt on the fly, one-handed. This is very handy for those times when a meal or some other situation requires a looser fit -- just reach down and let it out by a few detents for perfect fit.The quality of construction on the units for sale here on Amazon is outstanding. The belts are thick, full-grained leather, and have very little stretch or give -- an indication these belts will last. The solid stainless steel buckle is likewise heavy, nicely polished, and finely made. The ratcheting mechanism is fully polished, and the small adjustment lever moves smoothly with the flick of a fingertip. It's a very easy belt to use. Once you have cut it to length along the handy dotted lines, you clip the buckle on the square end. To put it on, you just slip the tapered end through the slot in the buckle and tick through the detents for a perfect fit. It's oddly satisfying to click-click-click the belt into place. To remove it, you pull forward on the spring-loaded lever just beneath the buckle and slide the end free.I did have one bad experience trying to buy a discounted version of this "Intrepid" buckle and belt on another website. Apparently there are some reject or old-versions of this buckle out there, and you don't want them. Mine came with a stiff, notchy adjustment lever in a completely different shape, which was difficult to use, less polish on the working parts of the buckle, and a broken tooth where the buckle attaches to the belt. Make sure you buy yours from Amazon or another retailer selling TRAKLINE's good stuff -- not castoffs or whatever that older version is.I liked these TRAKLINE belts so much I immediately bought another for myself in black (there is a cool belt hanger you can get from TRAKLINE if you have more than one) and one each for my father and brother-in-law for Christmas gifts. I highly recommend them for anyone. They simply work and look better than anything I've seen in 20-something years of wearing leather belts. There's no reason at all to pay more for an old style belt with holes that will never fit as well and can't be adjusted with such precision, so easily, any time you like.Five stars.UPDATE: I wore out my brown Trakline after about 2.5 years of five-day-a-week use. It did not break or really even look bad, but the interior layer of leather cracked in two places, and it had warped into a slightly curved shape (all my leather belts do this eventually). I consider that a good "track record" (haha) and am now onto my black Trakline, largely unused because I've been wearing brown shoes. It's worth noting the belt did not discolor or develop scuffs, and of course it has no holes to pull out of shape. In other words, even worn out, it looked good. I'm still sold on the product. A final note -- I attempted to order another dark brown Trakline and found that they are temporarily out of that color, so be aware that until summer 2017 at least, "brown" belts are more like the "tan" color advertised.

I like the ratchet design. It takes a bit of practice to get used to removing/opening the belt, but it is easy to set up, easy to use. One question I have is if the belt will keep together. I have had glued two-layer belts come apart. Hopefully that won't be the case with this. I wish there was some way to use ordinary belts with the ratchet buckle, but it relies on a special plastic (?) band with slots along the back of the belt to work.I need to investigate if I can buy just the leather part. It would be easy enough to swap belt colors, there is a simple clamping mechanism that holds the buckle on.(A few weeks later.) It evidently is possible to get just the leather belt, but I decided to get a complete second belt. The more I use this the more I like it!

The belt is comfortable probably one of the best ratchet belts out there. For $60 here is my issue. There are three layers to this belt in order to incorporate the track. Top layer is full grain leather "possibly but im not convinced" the middle layer is synthetic material "this is verified by management at Kore Essentials" the third and bottom layer is I'm told top grain leather"not sure not an expert on leather" but we will see if it holds up. The Buckle is quality comfortable and all together feels like it will last. I will update this review in a year or so