A Belt Worthy of My H.U.R.T. 100 Buckle

I recently received the Ultrarunning magazine issue with the results of the H.U.R.T.100 in Hawaii with my name listed as one of the 60 finishers of the race. See my race report here.

Results for the H.U.R.T.100 in Ultrarunning Magazine
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

After finishing, I was handed a H.U.R.T. 100 Finisher's cap, and the coveted H.U.R.T. TRAIL 100 MILE FINISHER's buckle. This would be a treasured keepsake for me. Unlike some other runners that keep their buckles in a shoe box, I actually wear mine. I like that they are functional and good looking, and they're always a good conversation piece.

So I got to thinking about what I should do about a belt for the buckle. For my previous buckle I had ordered a generic belt from belts.com -- a quick online order and I got a basic functional leather belt that worked fine with the buckle.

But the H.U.R.T. buckle was special. I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to earn this buckle what with the lore of the difficulty of the H.U.R.T. 100 course. Now that I have it, I want to treat it with the respect it deserves. I had seen an ad in Ultrarunning magazine for some nice leather belts from California Bohemian Leather, and I had previously visited their website. However, after looking into ordering a belt from them, I got dissuaded by how cumbersome it seemed to be to go about ordering a custom ultrarunner belt. I had to take measurements and then send an email to them and couldn't just do it all on the website. What I was not considering was the fact that it was a custom belt, and I was looking for instant gratification.

Ordering the Belt

So, I figured I'd see how it goes and I shot off an email to BohemianLeather@gmail.com and mentioned that I was interested in a custom belt for my H.U.R.T. buckle and asked whether it would be possible to design a custom belt pattern that incorporated some aspect of the race. I mentioned that the race was known for its roots, but there were also ferns and bamboo, and I sent a link to some photos of the H.U.R.T. course so they could see what I was talking about.

Roots along the Pauoa Flats Trail at H.U.R.T.100
(Photo by Gilbert Gray)

Later that same afternoon, I received an email back from Marisol Martinez. She congratulated me on the H.U.R.T. 100 finish, and thanked me for considering them for making the belt for it. She then wrote the following:

"We generally only do belts in the designs we offer on our site, mostly because we are a small outfit here, just myself and my boyfriend Lance. Everything we make is made entirely by hand and it takes time as you can imagine. However, the root concept is somewhat in line with some of the stuff we make and offer so I am including a very quick and rough mock-up of some root carving that I made for you to see if it might be something you're into. This carving is free-form and will be done entirely by hand throughout the length of the belt. It is obviously not dyed and stained on this mock-up, just the natural hide but you can select a color of your preference as long as long as it is one of the colors we make. We formulate our own dyes and stains to come up with the tones we offer but we have a pretty wide selection."

She goes on to say

"...all of our belts are entirely hand made one at a time by
me and my boyfriend Lance. I'm also an ultrarunner and know how
important and meaningful earning one of these buckles is, and so our
work is done with that in mind. We try to be as meticulous and as time
efficient as we can without sacrificing the integrity of our craft. we
hope that what you get in return is worth it."

Attached to the email was a photo of the "mock up" she had carved upon receiving my inquiry.

Marisol's mock up of my concept!
(Photo by Marisol Martinez)

As you can imagine, I was blown away by the fact that I got a response to my email right away, and that she had actually gone ahead and prototyped the design idea on a strip of leather! Are you kidding me? This was awesome! I suggested that I would like the "roots" to be a little larger to capture how formidable the H.U.R.T. roots were, and we had some discussion about the color and shading/dying that could be done on the belt to give it more of a 3 dimensional look. In the end, I was confident that Marisol knew what I was looking for and I left it in the artist's hands to execute the idea beautifully.

All I had to do next was send her the measurements that they required for their custom belts. They needed the length of the belt, indicating how to measure it, along with the following measurements of the buckle:

Length of the buckle
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

Length of the rail bar
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

Length of the fastening post to the rail bar
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

Once they had all the ordering info, they added an item to their etsy store site that showed up as a "Special Listing Reserved for P.E." with the associated price indicated on the item. I don't have a screen shot of that but it shows up somewhat like the following, with an associated price printed alongside it. The price listed is the quoted price before any discounts.

A special listing for the custom order is added to the etsy site to facilitate the payment.

When you are ready to place the order, you select the Special Listing that was created for your custom order and it takes you to Paypal to transact the payment. At this step you can apply the discount code provided for Ultrarunning magazine customers or general ultrarunners. This is a whopping 20% discount off the quoted price. This is a tremendous service to the ultrarunning community that you will fully appreciate when you read on and see what is involved in producing one of these belts.

And that's it for the ordering process. Marisol then emailed me with an expected delivery date based on their workload and schedule.

The Making of the Belt

I was interested in the creative process, so I asked Marisol to take some photos of the making of the belt, and she and Lance were happy to oblige. The following set of photos shows the construction at each step. All belts are crafted entirely by hand, one at a time, from the cutting of the belt strap directly from the hide to the final polishing and conditioning.

All photos below of the construction process are courtesy of Lance and Marisol of California Bohemian Leather.

The whole process starts with a European vegetable tanned hide ready to be cut.

A strap is hand-cut to the exact width of the rail bar measurement that I had provided.

The buckle end is cut, punched and skived. Skiving is a process which
thins out the leather on the flesh side. This allows the buckle end of
the belt strap to fold and accommodate the buckle.

The borders of the strap are beveled.

Here Marisol is pre-burnishing the edges with canvas. I really like the beveled and polished look and feel of the strap that this process produces.

More burnishing with wood.

My initials are hand stamped into the leather at the buckle fastening end.

My initials and the California Bohemian Leather logo stamped into the leather at the buckle end.

The root carving begins. There's no do-overs on this step.

The carving of the roots runs the full length of the belt, all carved by freehand.

The carving is all done by freehand and for the entire length of the belt. I can imagine this might have gotten quite tedious after a few inches!

One can see how labor intensive this carving is.

The base dye and stain is applied to the strap.

At this stage, with the base dye applied, the carved portions look lighter.

The next step is to add a darker "antiquing" stain to the carved portions.

Rubbing off the upper dark antiquing stain then reveals the two toned pattern with the brown base.

The reverse of the belt is stained black.

Burnishing the underside of the belt with glass for a smooth finish.

Next the beveled edges are burnished further with beeswax.

The billet end holes are punched into the belt.

Finally, the belt is hand polished.

And the masterpiece emerges after two-tone hand polishing.

Ready for its close up. Look at that beauty!
(Photo courtesy of CaliforniaBohemianLeather)

Root detail along the full length of the belt.
(Photo courtesy of CaliforniaBohemianLeather)

The belt finally mated with the H.U.R.T.100 buckle.
The belt is shipped Priority Mail with a canvas tote bag and a complimentary personalized key ring.
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

I'm going to wear it proudly.
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

The belt has a feel of genuine quality to it. It is one that you will want to keep for a lifetime. Even the belt holes exude quality in the sense that they are not just punched holes but they are an oval shape with the edges stained black and are very clean cut and polished.

Another example is how the buckle is fastened to the strap. Rather than just snaps that are used by cheaper belts, this one uses screwed rivets to secure the buckle. A spare rivet is also provided, just in case.

Screwed rivets secure the buckle to the strap.
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

The time it takes to receive the belt depends primarily on the workload and backlog of Lance and Marisol at the time you order. In my case I got the belt in 4 weeks and was advised along the way on when to expect it. Was I satisfied? Absolutely! Not only did I find the quoted price very reasonable, but they also offer a 20% discount to all ultrarunners. I almost felt guilty availing of this discount after seeing how much work goes into the making of the belt.

I am 100% satisfied with this product and the interaction with California Bohemian Leather was an enjoyable part of the process. It's a small operation and you will be interacting with fellow ultrarunners that understand what that buckle means to you.

The belt brings back memories of the roots on Mount Tantalus at HURT 100.
(Photo by Paul Encarnación)

Credits

If you think you might be interested in ordering a custom belt for your 100 miler buckle, visit Lance and Marisol's website listed below and/or email them at BohemianLeather@gmail.com.

California Bohemian Leather website:
http://bohemianleather.craftlaunch.com/shop/

Associated etsy site:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BohemianLeather

Lance Anderson and Marisol Martinez in front of their Altadena Workshop
(2012 Photo by Ibarionex Perello)

California Bohemian Leather is a small leather crafting business run by Lance Anderson and Dr. Marisol Martines, who is also a practicing chiropractor, in Altadena, California, literally at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest. The course of the Angeles Crest 100 runs literally through their backyard. Marisol herself has completed the Angeles Crest 100 three times, placing 5th woman in each of these years.

Thanks so much, Lance and Marisol! And thank you for letting me share the story of how you created my custom belt as you've done for countless other ultrarunners before me.  It was so worth the wait. Love my belt!