Solid cowhide braided belt

For our bags, we use different leathers with quite different properties. All of these leathers are vegetable tanned, and they come mainly from German, sometimes from French tanneries that work to high standards.

We only use carefully tanned leather, sometimes we accentuate with colors, and otherwise only rely on different leather greases. The result: Our leathers age naturally and evenly, and they develop a patina that is unique for every piece – which, by the way, also depends on how you care for the leather. Leather greases, oils or other leather care products may contain different ingredients that can affect the color as well as the color intensity.

Please keep in mind: Each hide takes on the color or hue of the tanning agent in its own way, each dyeing process goes a little bit differently. And as to how your display or monitor shows the colors: we have no influence on that. Color deviations on your display and on the original piece are therefore normal and not a fault.

Oldgermany Cowhide Brown

This leather is tanned using a traditionally used method. Its basic light brown hue comes from pure vegetable tanning agents. There are no additional dyes involved. The leather gets heavily greased in the tannery, making it noticeably heavier and somewhat stiffer to the touch.

Oldgermany Cowhide Brown barely changes when exposed to the light for a longer time, but moisture lets it darken significantly. Drops for example also leave behind recognizable stains. Fortunately, in most cases you can easily level out stains by wiping the leather with a slightly damp cloth. Damp Oldgermany Cowhide Brown may rub off a little, especially in the beginning; the water-soluble colors come from the plants used for tanning. From most textile fabrics they can be washed out simply with water.

Softer and smoother to the touch comes a variant, Oldgermany Cowhide Milled.

Cowhide Natural

This exceptionally sturdy leather also comes from a tannery in the north of Germany, which manufactures it for us using vegetable tanning agents. It’s only lightly greased, which makes it not as heavy as our typical greased leather types Oldgermany and Pullup. The leather receives its color entirely from the tanning agents, which give the very bright natural hide a still light to medium brown shade.

On the other hand, Cowhide Natural will develop its patina and traces of use relatively quickly at the beginning. It will also darken considerably in the light, and the color tone may also shift somewhat. This is part of the unique character of this leather.

Cowhide Black

Our Cowhide Black is another type of greased leather. Like our Cowhide Pullup, it is treated with a tough special grease that makes the leather appear even stronger than it already is on its own. And since it can absorb a lot of this grease, this leather is also quite heavy, which emphasizes the distinctly robust character.

Unlike Cowhide Pullup, Cowhide Black receives an additional dyeing. As always with our few dyed leathers, it is aniline dye that converts the original brown to black in this case. This type of dyes has been long known and proven. Because of  to the black base color, patina and all the traces of wear develop differently than with the natural hue or tan tint leather qualities. And, please keep in mind? This leather can also rub off a bit if it gets wet or damp – not a particularly strong, but still a visible effect that will decrease significantly over time.

Cowhide Pullup

Our Cowhide Pullup is entirely vegetable tanned in the north of Germany. It is extensively treated with a special, relatively hard grease that makes the leather stiffer and creates sort of a thin waxy layer on the surface. When the leather is bent or folded, stretched, scratched or scraped, the leather will therefore show lighter stripes in these places. These obvious signs of use are a desirable, purely visual effect that is typical of richly greased leather. Just as typical: Pullup leather will for a long time not require any special care,  and it is exceptionally durable.

Cowhide Pullup becomes a little brighter with time. This is mainly due to the fact that the grease in the top layer or the wax layer wears off a little. So it’s rally just a really superficial effect. Moisture, on the other hand, renders Cowhide Pullup a bit darker. Both effects are noticeable, but relatively small. In case water stains should become more noticeable, it is usually sufficient to wipe the leather evenly with a damp cloth; this will even out the color again, and the leather might become a little bit darker.

Measure the belt length on a belt that fits you well. Please do not measure the whole belt, but from the inside of the buckle (where the hinge of the buckle is) to the middle hole (or the hole you usually use). This is the “effective” length of the belt, which is roughly your waist measurement.