Kore Essentials EDC Belt

Thresher8-8

Amateur
I wanted to take a minute and provide a quick review on the Kore Essentials EDC belt. Between 20 years of law enforcement and a few years of having concealed permit while in the Army I have been carrying a pistol for approaching a quarter of a century. I am not a writer by any means but thought I would pass along what I have found to be a good product. I found the belt at F3 Tactical in Chantilly, Va. and purchased it on a recommendation. Let me start off with that I believe a good belt is the same as the foundation on your house. Without a good one you could be in trouble. You can have a high dollar custom pistol, beautiful hand formed knife and amazing kydex holster but if you are carrying all of it with a $20 Wal Mart belt your foundation is jeopardizing your whole system.

First off the belt is at a rather attractive price point, about $60. As most of us are on budgets (LEO and Military pay checks) and the price is much easier to swallow than the $90-$120 belts from high end manufacturers. Those belts are worth the money but some of us have a hard time saving for them or need to prioritize purchases. This is where the Kore has found a true "nitch" spot. It is well built so it is going to cost more than a standard dress or jeans belt. Yet the manufacturer has been able to keep the price down.

I have found the fastener system to be a nice alternative to the old hole and post systems standard belts have. The small increments of adjustablility are great to have. You get 3 or 4 adjustment points compared to each hole in the traditional system. My waist size grows and shrinks throughout the day as I eat and digest making the small sized adjustments extremely nice to keep the belt comfortable. Another advantage is adjusting the belt to limit or eliminate printing. I also find the Kore easier to adjust compared to the slide and lock bar style belts on high end belts.

Next up is stiffness. The belt is not as stiff as some of the high end pistol belts but it is still plenty stiff to carry your gear. I actually like that it is not completely inflexible. The belt is a bit more comfortable that way. At least to me it is. I would see it taking years for the belt to deform and need replacing.

Kore seems to have styled the belt to not have the tactical look of a lot of pistol belts. The belts come in black or brown "leather". There are 3 different buckles. Between the colors and buckles you have several combinations to make it seem like you have several different belts. I think the belt looks just as good with a suit as it does with jeans. Granted when I wear it with jeans the belt is usually covered with an outer concealment garment.

The belt comes as a rather long piece of kit. Sizing is simple though. You buy the belt, bring it home, detach the buckle and trim to the right size using the markings on the inside of the belt. I have trimmed it twice. The first one I left it long as I wanted to be cautious with the size. I used some nice scissor and found reasonable hand strength will help you cut through both layers of "leather" & the plastic stiffening core. The second trimming was to take the extra length off the belt that was hanging past the buckle. That time I used a nice new razor blade. Both techniques were easy. After trimming, re-install the buckle and wear.

I have been using the belt for over 6 months and have enjoyed its functionality. It has had zero issues and shows no wear. All in all I see the Kore as a budget minded ACTUAL PISTOL BELT. Use this information as you please. If it helped you with making a decision to buy a good foundation than I am glad I wrote something.
 

Gaz

Newbie
I just want to share my experience because it's negative overall.

I purchased two of these belts with X3 buckles and the belt hanger about 6 months ago. They're attractive enough and well made for the price, the largest benefit of this option over others being the reduced bulk in the buckle area, which is why I originally went to try these out.

My biggest issue is that the reinforced core does not extend all the way around the belt: the 10" length with the notches is not reinforced, which is a critical area for carrying a gun, particularly for AIWB carry. Aside from that these are decent belts for the money, just not if you're carrying a 30oz gun or probably any gun, so points are lost on the "Gun Belt" side of things. The other downsides are that the buckle pinches and is not comfortable if it is shifted to an off center of your body, the primary pinch point being at my hip bones. Lastly, the edges will dent where the weight of the buckle rests and where the clips of your holster ride, which is not a huge deal but might be an issue if you plan to use this as a double-duty gun belt and a formal belt.

The tactical belt line is different in that they extended the reinforced section on those, but until they update the leather belts that way it's not worth it. I've found myself going back to my traditional study 1.5" leather belt from Hank's Belts for both comfort and effectiveness. I'm excited about this technology but it's not there yet.

The last thing worth noting is that I feel the company is dishonest. They don't publish any reviews below 5 stars on their webpage. I did find a 4 star review but it was overwhelmingly positive, and in general they are creating a the false illusion that these are perfect belts. They also deleted my comment on one of their advertisements about the lack of reinforcement behind or around the trackline area and that I would not recommend using the belt to EDC a gun.

Summary: not worth it if you are carrying anything larger than a subcompact pistol. Pretty solid if you're looking for a sturdy belt that you don't plan on strapping a gun onto. The biggest thing to remember is that the all leather gun belts are not the same as their tactical belts, but obviously it's not in vogue to wear a nylon belt with business or business casual clothing.
 

NHlocal

Newbie
I just want to share my experience because it's negative overall.

I purchased two of these belts with X3 buckles and the belt hanger about 6 months ago. They're attractive enough and well made for the price, the largest benefit of this option over others being the reduced bulk in the buckle area, which is why I originally went to try these out.

My biggest issue is that the reinforced core does not extend all the way around the belt: the 10" length with the notches is not reinforced, which is a critical area for carrying a gun, particularly for AIWB carry. Aside from that these are decent belts for the money, just not if you're carrying a 30oz gun or probably any gun, so points are lost on the "Gun Belt" side of things. The other downsides are that the buckle pinches and is not comfortable if it is shifted to an off center of your body, the primary pinch point being at my hip bones. Lastly, the edges will dent where the weight of the buckle rests and where the clips of your holster ride, which is not a huge deal but might be an issue if you plan to use this as a double-duty gun belt and a formal belt.

The tactical belt line is different in that they extended the reinforced section on those, but until they update the leather belts that way it's not worth it. I've found myself going back to my traditional study 1.5" leather belt from Hank's Belts for both comfort and effectiveness. I'm excited about this technology but it's not there yet.

The last thing worth noting is that I feel the company is dishonest. They don't publish any reviews below 5 stars on their webpage. I did find a 4 star review but it was overwhelmingly positive, and in general they are creating a the false illusion that these are perfect belts. They also deleted my comment on one of their advertisements about the lack of reinforcement behind or around the trackline area and that I would not recommend using the belt to EDC a gun.

Summary: not worth it if you are carrying anything larger than a subcompact pistol. Pretty solid if you're looking for a sturdy belt that you don't plan on strapping a gun onto. The biggest thing to remember is that the all leather gun belts are not the same as their tactical belts, but obviously it's not in vogue to wear a nylon belt with business or business casual clothing.


Gaz,
I agree 100% with your comment about the reinforced section not running all the way through on the leather belts. That was the biggest "con" for me personally. I did post "lengthy" 5 star review based on the quality and performance. I run the leather belt 95% of the time with my Glock G19 in a Tier1Conceaed Axis Slim holster with a spare mag. I offset the buckle and am able to set my AIWB rig on the reinforced section and still allow the belt to be fully functional. My favorite feature is having the ability to adjust it very discreetly. Here is a copy of the review I left. I was very honest and also very "long winded". It posted on their site 1/18/19. I apologize if my post is too long.

"After doing a whole lot of reading and watching videos I invested in one of the Kore Essentials reinforced gun belts. One of the main reasons I bought the belt, other than it being on sale and getting a great price, was having the ability to adjust the belt(while carrying my weapon)without anyone around me knowing what I was doing. This one feature was very important to me and it performs this task pretty much flawlessly. I also wanted a quality belt that was stiff enough to support my every day carry without any sagging and it also does this with no problem whatsoever. Another feature the belt has is the ability to adjust 1/4 inch at at a time/per click. I have been wearing the belt(s) daily for almost 5 months now and the quality and durability is excellent. The belt(s) still look almost brand new and they still perform like new. As good as they are the belts are not perfect. The one thing about the leather reinforced belts is the core stiffener ends very close to where the "ratchet notches" end. This is a very noticeable problem for me because I carry appendix. In order for my holster to properly sit/fit on the belt and still have the ability to adjust it discreetly I have to wear the belt with the buckle in the 2 O'clock position. This becomes a problem with the "stiffener" ending too soon because the claw on my holster ends up being located beyond where the stiffener ends so I lose some of the advantage of the holster claw because it's pushing against a part of the belt that has no stiffener in it. My point is I cut the first belt I bought following the instructions that came with it. I learned from that first belt that if I had left it 6 to 8 inches longer it would allow my holster claw to locate on the belt where the stiffener is. I did this with the second leather belt I bought and it works great. I just have to deal with a 6 inch long tail on the belt. This problem could be completely eliminated by having the stiffener run the entire length of the belt. I still use the belt I cut to the "correct" length but not for every day carry. I'm really disappointed I am unable to use the first belt for carrying. I also bought the black tactical belt and that is stiff for the entire length which is great. There are two things that cause a bit of trouble for me and one is it doesn't slide nearly as easy as the leather belt when I adjust it during the day wearing my EDC rig. The leather belt is smooth and slides easily in the belt loops but the tactical belt is "fabric"(which causes a lot of friction) which doesn't allow me to be anywhere near as discreet when I adjust it. The other thing about the tactical belt is threading the end through my belt loops. The very end of the belt doesn't seem to be well shaped/formed to easily slide/fit through the loops. I tried to trim and melt it which helped a little but it still is a pain to thread the belt through my pant belt loops. With all that said I really do love the belt/buckle system and the way it works. With a few small changes the belt would be pretty much perfect. I strongly recommend it for a good quality, great performing gun belt. I really wish I had the ability to post photos/video. It would be so much easier to "show and tell" about the belt."
 
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