It’s just a belt. Until it breaks.
When I needed a new belt, I followed advice from fellow Stridewise writer Daniel Pati, who wrote an essay about the mistake of assuming all belts are the same. They’re not.
Using his criteria, I landed on Satchel & Page, a Brooklyn-based outfit that painstakingly developed some of the most highly regarded vegetable tanned leather on Earth. They sell two belts — a thicker, casual one and a slimmer, dressy one — in brown and black. To really try my hand at learning the ins and outs of good belts, I bought both. Here are my lessons from three years of wear.
Key Takeaways: Satchel & Page Belt Review
I’ve had my 1.25” belt for three years and my 1.5” belt for over one year. The pros outweigh the cons by far. The durable, vegetable tanned leather is fantastic value and ages wonderfully. The brass hardware has held up well and patinated nicely. Satchel and Page’s belts are very versatile and go with casual and business casual outfits.
Pros
- Exceptional value
- Crafted with premium materials, fantastic build quality for its price
- Lifetime warranty
- Good options for casual or formal wear
Made with certified vegetable tanned leather from Tuscany and arriving with a lifetime warranty, these belts are remarkably well priced and can be dressed up or down.
Cons
- Limited color options: these only come in black and brown leather
- Transparency: we know it’s Tuscan and vegetable tanned, but not where the belt is made
What the Experts Say
“How complicated is it to buy a belt?” you might be asking. Here’s the knowledge and strategy I had when I started exploring my options.
- Price: You’ll spend around $50 – $150 for a decent belt.
- Leather: Look for brands that identify the tannery and tannage.
- Widths: Get the correct width for your style: narrower for formal, wider for casual.
- Hardware: Stainless steel, solid brass, and chromed brass won’t rust. Brass will tarnish. Some guys like that. There are also a wide variety of buckle shapes. Choose between rivets, Chicago screws, or stitching, depending on the style of belt you’re after.
- Edge finishing and stitching: Finished edges and clean stitches are dressier. Unfinished edges are more casual and rugged.
- Ends: Common ends are round, square, and cut/clipped.
How Much Does a High-Quality Belt Cost?
Right out the gate, “Adjust your price perception and question product quality,” Pati says, “Expect to pay somewhere between $50 and $150 for a quality belt.”
Like many things we review, price is as important as quality. Low-quality goods fall apart faster and need replacing. I value high-quality, durable, casual items, so I don’t mind paying for a great belt. When I saw Satchel & Page offered a lifetime warranty, I knew they deserved a closer look.
Belt Leather
When our Editor-in-Chief interviewed John Culliton, a Vice president at the world-famous Horween Leather Company, he recommended disregarding marketing terms like “top grain” and “full grain” as quality signals.
Ostensibly, “full grain” leather has more of the animal’s hide in tact, so it’s meant to be more durable and to age better. But the fact is that nobody’s controlling these terms; any brand can call anything “full grain.’
What I prefer to do is shop with brands that are transparent about where their leather comes from, what tannery produces it, and how it’s tanned. I like vegetable tanned leather for belts and bags because it’s durable and ages well.
(Vegetable tanning can be too stiff for footwear, at least for some guys. That’s a controversy for a different article, though. When it’s belts and bags, go with veg tan.)
Further Reading
Why Horween Leather Company is America’s Best Tannery
Horween Leather Company has been a renowned and trusted tannery for over a century. Check out how →
Widths
“A wider (1.5”) belt is better is more formal,” says Pati. “Thinner belts (1.25”) are generally considered dressier.”
For this Satchel & Page belt review, I’m reviewing both their wide (1.5”) and narrow (1.25”) belts.
Hardware
Belts seem simple: just a strip of leather attached to a buckle with holes punched through the leather. But a shocking number of buckles and materials are used to make the hardware.
For hardware, belt makers might use stainless steel, solid brass, and chromed brass, and others. Getting plated metals like silver, gold, and nickel comes down to your style.
It’s common to wear matte and brass buckles with more casual outfits and shiny metals with more formal outfits.
Buckles also come in different shapes with different fasteners. I gravitate to simple buckles, and I like brass.
You want the buckle securely attached to the belt. Typically, this means using rivets or Chicago screws. Some buckles are stitched on, and stitching isn’t as repairable as rivets or Chicago screws, though they do look sleeker.
Rivets usually stay put better than Chiacgo screws, but are more challenging to remove. Chicago screws make it easy to change buckles, but can loosen over time. They’re both solid options, though I’m not a fan of stitching the buckle without rivets because of how hard it is to repair — even though it does look more simple.
In other words, all your buckle options have pros and cons.
Edge Finishing and Stitching
Edge finishing is important for some guys. If you just cut a piece of leather out of a hide with a blade, the edges will be “raw.” That costs less, and it’s a look some guys like for casual belts.
Edges can be finished, though, usually with wax or with another piece of leather. If you’re looking for a dress belt, you might want to pay extra for the finished edges. Satchel & Page did this right: the dressier belt is finished, the casual one isn’t. (I’d have liked them to charge even a little less for the belt with unfinished edges, but they’re the same price.)
Ends
Generally, you’ll choose between round, square, or cut/clipped point ends. There are nearly infinite varieties of these. In my opinion, square ends are a bit more casual, especially if the edges are unfinished. Round points are dressier. But there’s no hard-fast rules around this.
The Brand
When choosing a brand, I look for the good and bad reviews and take everything with a grain of salt.
Overall, Satchel & Page (S&P) has a good reputation. It’s not perfect. But they honor their lifetime warranty, and Stridewise reviewers have had positive experiences using their products for up to 3 years.
They are an e-commerce company that positions its brand as producing high-end leather goods for men, specializing in bags, accessories, and jackets. It was founded by Daniel Ralsky, who was inspired by his grandfather’s World War II-era map case to build a company that produces seriously durable leather goods.
They use Italian vegetable-tanned leather, brass hardware, and YKK Japanese zippers, and are fairly transparent about where they source their leather and how it’s tanned. They don’t say which tannery provides their leather — it’s understandable that some brands want to keep their supplier secret from their competitors — but we know that it comes from Ponte a Egola and is certified by a small group of Tuscan tanneries dedicated to preserving the craft called the Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium.
S&P stands behind its products with a lifetime warranty, but they’re not perfect. I get keeping the tannery quiet and I love that they include proof that it’s certified Tuscan veg tan, but they’re not transparent about where the products are made. (We hear rumors it’s Turkey, but it’s not clear whether everything is made in the same place.)
Further Reading
Why You Need Satchel and Page’s Mailbag (Review)
Certified by the Italian Vegetable-Tanned Leather Consortium, nobody makes better leather, and the super simple Mailbag is the best way to show it off. Check out how →
Satchel and Page Belts: Two Widths
Generally, you will need a couple of belts in your rotation. It’s common to have a more casual brown belt and a dressier black belt. Black leather is usually paired with a silver buckle. Brown looks great with brass hardware. Lo and behold, S&P went with those combinations on their belts, which come in those two colors. (And no others!)
All of their belts use vegetable-tanned leather from Ponte a Egola in Italy. S&P’s belts use cowhide double bends (middle back sections of the hide) from France, and their weight ranges from 10 to 12 oz. That’s about 4.5 millimeters thick, or twice as thick as you’ll get in hardy boots.
Made with certified vegetable tanned leather from Tuscany and arriving with a lifetime warranty, these belts are remarkably well priced and can be dressed up or down.
Slim Brown Leather Belt (1.25’’)
A simple and elegant leather belt. It has a classic rounded brass heel bar buckle with an antique finish. S&P chose the more rugged antique brass, which looks great with the brown veg-tanned leather. For their black belts, they went with a matte silver-plated bronze buckle.
It comes with a thin leather adjustable loop. It occasionally moves around and peeks out of the belt, but it wasn’t a big deal for me.
It’s perfectly suited for business casual attire. The edges are finished with matching stitches, giving it a slightly more formal look than the more rugged 1.5’’ belt.
The short-point rounded tip looks good with the finished edges. It’s not a dress belt, per se, but it shares a lot of design elements with dressier belts. Everything is attached with stitching. The buckle isn’t attached to rivets, just stitches, which is common for dress belts.
If you only own one belt, go with something like the 1.25” belt. It’s a bit more versatile, you can get away with wearing it casually with jeans — but it thrives with chinos.
Casual Brown Leather Belt (1.5’’)
This slightly wider belt is perfect for casual attire due to its wide profile and blockier buckle.
Like all S&P belts and bags made with brown leather, it’s made with veg tan leather from Italy with antique brass hardware.
This has been my go-to casual belt for just about all occasions. This belt has no stitches along the edges, but they have been hand burnished and finished with beeswax to make the look cleaner than totally unfinished, raw edges.
Both of my brown belts have brass buckles in antique finishes. It will tarnish and develop a nice patina.
Sizing Satchel & Page’s Belts
- Add 4 inches to your pant size to get your belt size
My belt size is a 36. My pants size is usually 32-34, depending on the brand. Check the Satchel & Page belt size chart before ordering: you’re advised to add 4 inches to your pant size to land on your belt size.
Price, Value, and Ordering
Satchel & Page is a direct-to-consumer selling its products exclusively from its website. Both belts are generally available as far as inventory is concerned, unlike some of their popular items, such as briefcases that are back-ordered or need to be pre-ordered. Belts are simpler to make and can be made more quickly.
S&P products can cause sticker shock at first, but at least when it comes to the belts, they’re good value. Thursday Boot Company is a giant brand with extremely well priced heritage goods and their belts are about the same price as Satchel & Page’s, even though the leather is cheaper.
The fact that you can pick up Italian veg-tanned leather sourced from French-origin cowhide for $85 for belts is beyond me. I would expect to pay above $100.
The Bottom Line
It’s hard to find any full grain leather belt at this pricepoint, let alone the best full grain leather belt I’ve encountered.
I cannot get enough of S&P products. Frankly, I would like to own all of them if I could.
If you’re looking for timeless and classic style leather products made with the highest quality materials and finest craftsmanship backed by a lifetime warranty for far less than what you’d normally pay for with mainstream brands. You don’t need to look further than S&P. It’s that simple.
The post Satchel & Page Belt Review: 3 Years With Both Belts appeared first on Stridewise.
