Thinking to buy a tommy hilfiger belt? 3 reasons you may want to consider other options

Tommy Hilfiger is a fashion brand that was founded in 1985. They sell a large range of items, one of which is a Tommy Hilfiger belt. If you're after a cheap belt, that's made of cheap materials and adorned in logos then you may actually like these belts but if you want to do better learn more about these 3 key reasons to consider other belts.

Cheap materials simply don't last.

There is no getting around this that if you use cheaper materials you are going to be getting materials of a lower quality and the number one way this shows up is in their durability. A Tommy Hilfiger belt may look on the day you buy it but even if made well, the underlying materials will let it down.

Both the cheaper and more expensive Tommy Hilfiger belts are described as 

• Metal buckle
• Leather
• 100% Leather

Unfortunately this tells you very little but it's what they aren't saying that it the giveaway here.

Regulations stop a company from calling something if it's not actually that thing so the words they aren't using tell you what it's not made from. 

For a long lasting belt you need long lasting materials and for a leather belt this means long lasting leather and long lasting metals.

Full grain leather for the strap

Full grain leather belts are the most durable option in a leather belt, but this leather is expensive however when it lasts (with proper care) for 10+ years instead of a couple of years it starts to look cheap compared to '100% leather'. 100% leather is typically the offcuts of leather that is bonded together to make a single strap. It loses most of the physical properties of leather that make it a great material to work with. In short, it's marketing designed to make a belt sound better than it is.

Hard metals for the buckle

Whilst you can use materials other than metal assuming you're using metal then you will want the most durable (hardest) metal you can find. The challenge is that hard metals are hard (read expensive) to work with, especially to form the more complex shapes you might find in a belt buckle. A Tommy Hilfiger belt is described as 'metal' which tells you its made out of a common, inexpensive metal thats also cheap to work with. Usually this will be a zinc alloy with some kind of coating to make it look nice or a certain colour. Within only a year or so this will degrade and barely resemble the thing you bought.

The ideal material for a men's belt is stainless steel (preferably grade 316). It can be brushed or polished to achieve various material finishes but importantly the surface is not a coating that will disappear with the combination of heat, friction and moisture.

Tommy Hilfiger belts always have logos

Tommy is a fashion brand that subscribes to what we call 'logo fashion' and a Tommy Hilfiger belt is no exception. Even the most lightly branded version of their belts still has their logo heavily featured in a way that anyone else looking at the wearer will see it. This is especially true for the flat metal buckles found in dress belts where logo fashion really can't help itself.

When we interviewed 100s of men about what they wanted in the perfect belt 'No visible branding' came up time and time again. 

Most men when given the option of logo or no logo on their belt will choose no logo. They want quality they just don't want to be a walking billboard for another company.

Finding a men's belt not covered in branding is a hard task but a belt without branding is going to appeal more to most men.

Tommy Hilfiger belts come with no form of guarantee of quality

A belt, like a decent pair of shoes or a leather jacket is an item you should be able to buy maybe 1 or 2 times in your life. As mentioned above it's virtually impossible to make a long lasting belt without long lasting materials but as well as this it needs to be made to last a long time. 

Large fashion brands make belts as an add-on, not their primary business. In fact they are typically not making the belt but outsourcing the belts to a 3rd party that simply makes them to spec (price, design, options). The business model of this style of fashion relies on you buying the product every few years rather than building them to last a long time. 

This is why there is no mention of workmanship, durability or guarantees of any kind and the belt you buy today will not be available next season. It will be replaced with another belt option chasing whatever fashion trend is in that season.

The best mens belt will come from a company who is solely focused on making belts and not only chooses long lasting materials but backs them by workmanship and even a guarantee that the product will last at least a decade with the proper care.