Indestructible Belt

The belt strap is made entirely out of aramid fibres, which weight for weight are 5x stronger than steel. By weaving thousands of these individual para-aramid strands together, we’ve created a belt so strong you’d need to hang more than 3 tonnes off it before it will break. Which means it can hold up a Cybertruck, or the average killer whale. The strap is also highly resistant against cuts and slashes, and almost impossible to set on fire.

Aramid is so strong that it’s used to build bulletproof vests and body armour. NASA use it to shield satellites and shuttles against space debris moving at 10 times the speed of a bullet. And when the Pathfinder Rover arrived on Mars, the ropes and landing cushions that helped it land safely on Martian soil were also made from aramid.

If you look at aramid fibres under a microscope you’ll find a phenomenally strong structure – a series of inter-chain bonds cross-linked with hydrogen bonds. These bonds are so tightly packed that it’s almost impossible to separate them – which is exactly why they’re normally layered up to stop bullets. And it’s this same molecular structure that gives aramid its unique colour. This specific combination of electron system bonds are what makes the fibre naturally yellow.

When you’re building an Indestructible Belt it’s not enough for just the strap to be super strong. The buckle has to do its job too. So we’ve worked with AustriAlpin to fit our belt with their world-famous COBRA® buckle – the strongest and safest buckle on the planet. To get an idea of just how trusted these buckles are you just need to look at Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic, world-record freefall from space. His was attached to the pressure suit that kept him alive as he fell through the atmosphere at 1,357kmph.

Built from a high-strength, corrosion resistant aluminium the buckle is designed to hold extreme weight without bursting open. It’s engineered with a patented locking mechanism which means it’s impossible for the buckle to release under tension, even if you try pushing the clips inwards. And when it’s in ‘loop configuration’, which means with the strap attached, it can withstand 18 kilonewtons of force before breaking. Which is about 1.8 tonnes.

COBRA® buckles are born out of a long history of metalworking and mountaineering deep in the Tyrolean Alps. Back in 1996 AustriAlpin was started with the aim of developing and producing unbreakable components for mountaineers and ice climbers. Now their products represent the gold standard in safety hardware for high-consequence industries around the world – industries where if your kit fails, you die. To this day every COBRA® buckle is manufactured in the picturesque Alpine town of Fulpmes.

One of aramid’s greatest advantages is that it combines extreme strength with very low weight. While aramid is five times stronger than steel, it’s also about five times less dense. And that’s why it’s being used by NASA in everything from rovers, satellites and the ISS, to prototype space habitation modules. Combined with the lightweight aluminium buckle it means the Indestructible Belt weighs only 143 grams, but can support objects thousands of times its own weight.

The buckle comes with a cut-out on the back to prevent the build-up of dirt, dust, ice and snow, and the release clips are ergonomically shaped so they’re easy to use at speed. The metal end on the strap is made by Riri, an historic Italian manufacturer famous for its high-spec metal components. It comes engraved with Vollebak detailing on both sides. And while belt ends are typically just clamped onto the strap, we’ve secured ours with screws for strength. Every belt is assembled by a small, high-end belt manufacturer in London.

Even the thread we’ve used to construct the belt is made from para-aramid. So just like the strap it’s extremely strong and resistant to heat and flames. The connection between the strap and the belt is critical. So where the two parts meet we’ve double folded the strap, so there are three layers of it. Then finally we stitch it down with 12 rows of ultrastrong para-aramid thread.

The belt comes in its own custom case, built from anodized aluminium 6082T6, a corrosion resistant metal often used for high stress engineering applications like building bridges and cranes. The case is milled with a highly precise 5 axis CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine, and is fitted with a hidden 3D printed latch made from Nylon PA12.