Image: CS Simko

Back when we were freshmen in college, had you told us we’d be running this site, and friends with so many of the people behind some of our favorite brands, we wouldn’t have believed you.  We also wouldn’t have believed that a friend we made that same year would one day be hand making some absolutely fantastic belts.  That friend is CS Simko, and his 1 inch belt has truly become staple for us.

Each CS Simko belt is begins life as vegetable tanned leather sourced from the Hermann Oak Leather Co. in St. Louis, an outfit that’s been turning out fine leather for more than 130 years.  Simko then hand dyes and finishes each belt himself to make sure they are absolutely perfect before going out to his customers.  From basics like light brown or black, to more bold choices like navy or green, there are currently ten color options available in the CS Simko collection and you can’t go wrong with a single one of them.  Once the strap is dyed to perfection, it gets mated to a solid brass harness buckle for a look that is just a bit different than the norm.  The finished product is simply fantastic.  To be honest, we thought a 1 inch belt may be a bit skinny for regular wear, but after a couple of wears we didn’t give it a second thought.  In fact, this belt has seen far and away more wear than any in our collection over the past year.