Grayman
Established
One year with a barbarian...
I try not to do gear reviews before I've had a chance to really test the gear. After one year of almost daily wear I feel confident offering a review of my Mean Gene Leather Barbarian.
When I first saw the barbarian I immediately fell in love with the look of the belt. It's like some fantastic combination of you're favorite spaghetti western meets tier one operator. The classic look of leather matched with the cobra buckle was just too cool for words and I knew I had to have one.
When my belt arrived I was immediately impressed with the quality, not only did this thing look the part but it was built like a brick shithouse! To say this thing is substantial would be a gross understatement. The belt itself is over 1/4" thick and weighs a fair bit more than your average gun belt. The belt comes out of the box fairly stiff but with a buttery smoothness that only comes from quality leather. You can tell the first time you touch it this belt is an extremely high quality piece built for a very specific purpose.
Construction:
The barbarian is a 3 layer construction composed of a thin layer of nylon webbing sandwiched between two layers of leather. The female end of the cobra buckle is secured by a loop of the webbing protruding from between the layers of leather. The webbing runs the length of the belt and again protrudes from a slot cut in the outer layer of leather which is used to secure the male end of the buckle. Behind the female side of the buckle inside of the belt is a leather loop which secures the running edge of the leather and creates a section of doubled thickness in the front of the belt.
Putting it on:
This is probably the only major weakness of the barbarian design... To put the belt on you have to unthread the male end of the buckle from the webbing and then pass the belt through your belt loops. Once on you take the running end of the belt and put it through the leather loop behind the female buckle. You then take and rethread the male buckle onto the webbing and tighten the whole thing down as desired. Then comes the tricky part... The running end of the webbing (For me this was about 8" of webbing when new) must be passed through a couple of slits in the outer layer of leather. When the belt was new this was an extremely difficult task that required a set of pliers to pull the tab through. Over time this little flap of leather has loosened up and made the task much easier. Unfortunately as this got easier the webbing began to slip during wear allowing the belt to loosen itself during over the course of a day; not a bad thing after all you can eat sushi and sake but not great if you start getting dynamic. I found that to ensure the belt stayed secure I could run the webbing through the leather slot and back through both sides of the male buckle to lock it in place. This works well and tucks the running end of the webbing away nicely.
The whole process only takes about a minute with practice but it's not something you'll want to tackle more than once a day. The belt really lends itself to the loaded pants concept which is how I wind up using it.
Life with a barbarian:
From day one I could tell this had become my new favorite belt. The belt is so high quality you can actually feel the time Gene puts into each one. The belt was stiff right out of the box but unlike many of the nylon gun belts I've owned over the years it actually conforms to the body. The leather maintains the vertical rigidity you need in a gun belt but, and I'll emphasize this again, the leather actually conforms to the shape of your body. Most humans aren't perfectly round which means that a perfectly round belt only contacts you on the points of your hip bones. Anyone who has tried a scuba webbing wonder belt can undoubtedly attest to the discomfort of wearing a heavy load for any length of time. The barbarian solves this issue by being supple enough to conform to the natural oblong shape of your waist without sacrificing any of the rigidity that allows it to support a load. I could hypothesize as to why this is but let's just chalk it up to the wonders of leather.
How does it do with a real load? Well I'm glad you asked... I have worn this almost everyday including several classes. I have worn the belt for EDC with a fairly light load all the way up to a full class load out of 2 pistol mags, 2 rifle mags, dump pouch, TQ and BOK as well as a full size light bearing handgun. Even with a heavy class load the belt never felt overloaded or unstable. Perhaps the most surprising thing was just how well it managed to distribute all of the weight and remain comfortable with a load I'd generally reserve for a padded war belt.
The downsides:
There aren't many but I'd be remiss if I disregarded some of the noteworthy shortcomings. First and foremost is the thickness of this thing... At over 1/4" thick this sucker is substantial! This isn't necessarily an issue in and of itself but coupled with sometimes tight tolerances of belt attachment systems you could find yourself fighting with the belt. If you use a quick attach clip of some sort for your gear you may need to put a small spacer between the clip and the holster or accessory body. I find that small o-rings seem to work best for this and are a cheap, easy solution. If you are using a belt slide attachment you may find yourself working a little harder than normal to get things onto the belt.
The next issue has already been mentioned but deserves to be specifically covered here. The process of donning and doffing the belt takes some practice and definitely won't be you're choice if the seconds count.... (MGL makes an Aegis belt as well so you're covered if that's your SOP.) In addition to being a little time consuming the attachment system creates a flimsy point where the nylon for the male buckle protrudes from the leather. This is the only point where the belt feels slightly floppy. Once you synch the webbing down and buckle the belt this is a non-issue and the whole thing feels rock solid again.
The third and final issue is actually more of a personal problem... You see once you get a MGL belt you'll want to do stupid stuff with it like try to get away with wearing your ragged ass looking belt for your wedding. You might even go so far as to buy a wood handled EDC knife because let's face it wood and leather just belong together.
To summarize:
The barbarian is perhaps the single best gear investment I've made in a while. It is an extremely solid and notably substantial piece of kit. It will carry anything and everything you can throw at it and won't make you pay for the support like its scuba webbing counterparts. Unlike all too many things made today you can actually see and feel the craftsmanship and passion that goes into the belts construction. It's attachment process might seem a little cumbersome but sometimes the best things in life take a little extra attention to detail.
I try not to do gear reviews before I've had a chance to really test the gear. After one year of almost daily wear I feel confident offering a review of my Mean Gene Leather Barbarian.
When I first saw the barbarian I immediately fell in love with the look of the belt. It's like some fantastic combination of you're favorite spaghetti western meets tier one operator. The classic look of leather matched with the cobra buckle was just too cool for words and I knew I had to have one.
When my belt arrived I was immediately impressed with the quality, not only did this thing look the part but it was built like a brick shithouse! To say this thing is substantial would be a gross understatement. The belt itself is over 1/4" thick and weighs a fair bit more than your average gun belt. The belt comes out of the box fairly stiff but with a buttery smoothness that only comes from quality leather. You can tell the first time you touch it this belt is an extremely high quality piece built for a very specific purpose.
Construction:
The barbarian is a 3 layer construction composed of a thin layer of nylon webbing sandwiched between two layers of leather. The female end of the cobra buckle is secured by a loop of the webbing protruding from between the layers of leather. The webbing runs the length of the belt and again protrudes from a slot cut in the outer layer of leather which is used to secure the male end of the buckle. Behind the female side of the buckle inside of the belt is a leather loop which secures the running edge of the leather and creates a section of doubled thickness in the front of the belt.
Putting it on:
This is probably the only major weakness of the barbarian design... To put the belt on you have to unthread the male end of the buckle from the webbing and then pass the belt through your belt loops. Once on you take the running end of the belt and put it through the leather loop behind the female buckle. You then take and rethread the male buckle onto the webbing and tighten the whole thing down as desired. Then comes the tricky part... The running end of the webbing (For me this was about 8" of webbing when new) must be passed through a couple of slits in the outer layer of leather. When the belt was new this was an extremely difficult task that required a set of pliers to pull the tab through. Over time this little flap of leather has loosened up and made the task much easier. Unfortunately as this got easier the webbing began to slip during wear allowing the belt to loosen itself during over the course of a day; not a bad thing after all you can eat sushi and sake but not great if you start getting dynamic. I found that to ensure the belt stayed secure I could run the webbing through the leather slot and back through both sides of the male buckle to lock it in place. This works well and tucks the running end of the webbing away nicely.
The whole process only takes about a minute with practice but it's not something you'll want to tackle more than once a day. The belt really lends itself to the loaded pants concept which is how I wind up using it.
Life with a barbarian:
From day one I could tell this had become my new favorite belt. The belt is so high quality you can actually feel the time Gene puts into each one. The belt was stiff right out of the box but unlike many of the nylon gun belts I've owned over the years it actually conforms to the body. The leather maintains the vertical rigidity you need in a gun belt but, and I'll emphasize this again, the leather actually conforms to the shape of your body. Most humans aren't perfectly round which means that a perfectly round belt only contacts you on the points of your hip bones. Anyone who has tried a scuba webbing wonder belt can undoubtedly attest to the discomfort of wearing a heavy load for any length of time. The barbarian solves this issue by being supple enough to conform to the natural oblong shape of your waist without sacrificing any of the rigidity that allows it to support a load. I could hypothesize as to why this is but let's just chalk it up to the wonders of leather.
How does it do with a real load? Well I'm glad you asked... I have worn this almost everyday including several classes. I have worn the belt for EDC with a fairly light load all the way up to a full class load out of 2 pistol mags, 2 rifle mags, dump pouch, TQ and BOK as well as a full size light bearing handgun. Even with a heavy class load the belt never felt overloaded or unstable. Perhaps the most surprising thing was just how well it managed to distribute all of the weight and remain comfortable with a load I'd generally reserve for a padded war belt.
The downsides:
There aren't many but I'd be remiss if I disregarded some of the noteworthy shortcomings. First and foremost is the thickness of this thing... At over 1/4" thick this sucker is substantial! This isn't necessarily an issue in and of itself but coupled with sometimes tight tolerances of belt attachment systems you could find yourself fighting with the belt. If you use a quick attach clip of some sort for your gear you may need to put a small spacer between the clip and the holster or accessory body. I find that small o-rings seem to work best for this and are a cheap, easy solution. If you are using a belt slide attachment you may find yourself working a little harder than normal to get things onto the belt.
The next issue has already been mentioned but deserves to be specifically covered here. The process of donning and doffing the belt takes some practice and definitely won't be you're choice if the seconds count.... (MGL makes an Aegis belt as well so you're covered if that's your SOP.) In addition to being a little time consuming the attachment system creates a flimsy point where the nylon for the male buckle protrudes from the leather. This is the only point where the belt feels slightly floppy. Once you synch the webbing down and buckle the belt this is a non-issue and the whole thing feels rock solid again.
The third and final issue is actually more of a personal problem... You see once you get a MGL belt you'll want to do stupid stuff with it like try to get away with wearing your ragged ass looking belt for your wedding. You might even go so far as to buy a wood handled EDC knife because let's face it wood and leather just belong together.
To summarize:
The barbarian is perhaps the single best gear investment I've made in a while. It is an extremely solid and notably substantial piece of kit. It will carry anything and everything you can throw at it and won't make you pay for the support like its scuba webbing counterparts. Unlike all too many things made today you can actually see and feel the craftsmanship and passion that goes into the belts construction. It's attachment process might seem a little cumbersome but sometimes the best things in life take a little extra attention to detail.