HEYOU Handmade –Leather Kidney Belt

At present days, we may not be familiar with kidney belt, let alone knowing how it looks like. But when you look some old photos of bikers straddling their charming old Indians or Harley-Davidsons, you may always find it on the waists of those bikers. It is intriguing to find out how the kidney belts played an important role in the early age of motorcycle history. In the early days, the road condition was not as good as today's asphalt road and the suspension system of motorcycles was simple (still hard tails). Thus, riding a motorcycle would pose a great pressure on riders' back. Thus, bikers needed something that could offer support and protection on their back while they were riding. That was why something like kidney belt was invented and became a necessary accessory for early bikers.Back in 1927, the kidney belt could be found in Harley-Davidson's catalog. With the booming motorcycle culture afterWWII, the kidney belt provided not only its functionality in offering support and protection, but also a special medium for bikers to express their own personal character. Studded, riveted, or jeweled patterns were very popular among bikers. Some motorcycle clubs even had their own special design. However, with the improvement of suspension system of motorcycles and road condition, the necessity of kidney belt had been greatly diminished. And now, we can only see them on some old photos and eBay if we are lucky enough. Then you might be curious about why we are making something that has been forgotten by the market. Well, the reason is quite simple: It looks super cool! We may not need the support and protection offered by the kidney belt, but it is such an eyeball catcher as an accessary, especially when it can't be seen anywhere else. Besides, when we were designing the kidney belt, we did tons of research. And we were totally fascinated by one special technique to make the kidney belt - the chainmail. The style was so unique that it took less than 5 seconds for us to decide to using this special technique to build our own kidney belt. At the first sight, the chainmail type kidney belt might look like they are braided. But they are in fact composed of many single leather pieces and linked together, forming a flexible and, meanwhile, durable construction to offer support and comfort during the ride. To find out how the single leather piece scan be linked together, we deconstructed an old kidney belt to get the shape of the leather piece. After we realized how it worked, we assembled the leather pieces to build the kidney belt of our own design. The process was long but extremely fun! It took more than 200 leather pieces to build one kidney belt and it can only be done by hands (no kidding, finger shurt ! ). Needless to say, it is complicated and time-consuming to make, but there is nothing that can beat the joyfulness to bring back an oldie goodie from ancient catalogs to real life again! We use veg-tanned leather from one of bestItalian tanneries to make the belt; thus, they are definitely durable and beautiful patina with use is expected. All the hardwares, such as rivets and buckles, are solid brass. Therefore, they will never get rusted, and only look better with use just like the veg-tanned leather. Overall, we are happy with how our kidney belt turns out to be and we are pretty sure you will be too! Due to the heavy labor and long production time, the kidney leather belt is made to order only. Custom design, for example, riveted name or logo, is available upon request. Last but not least, we only accept one order per month, so the earlier you contact us, the sooner you may get yours! [Product Specifications & Details ] ✵ Color – Saddle Brown ✵ Veg -tanned leather that is effected by the time and usage habits.  ✵ Size: Customized according to customer size.