Every Brake House studded belt begins in a single workshop, with one pair of hands, a set of custom tools, and a stack of American saddle leather. We sat down with Qingyang (青杨), the craftsman behind our Diamond, Rodeo, and Montgomery belts. In this first part, he tells us how he found his way to leather, the philosophy that guides everything he makes, and the years-long search for the right hide.
From Levi's to Leather
Marcus: Let's start at the beginning. How did you get into making leather goods?
Qingyang: It goes back to school, when I fell hard for American vintage culture. I still remember my first pair of Levi's. I wasn't just wearing them, I was captivated by the history and the culture behind them. After I finished my studies, I came into contact with handmade leathercraft, which is its own important part of that vintage world. The more I learned, the more I wanted to make things myself. So I did.
Marcus: A lot of people find their way into American casual, amekaji, through Levi's, exactly like that. For me, the pull toward leather really started when I got serious about riding motorcycles. It's the kind of world where, once it gets its hooks in you, you never quite climb back out. So how long ago did you start?
Qingyang: I started in 2011. So it's been fifteen years now.
Marcus: Do you still have the first belt you ever made?
Qingyang: I do, and I remember it well. I made it for myself. The only problem is I've gained too much weight since then, so I can't actually wear it anymore. It stays as a reminder of where I began.
Marcus: (laughs) That's actually one of the most realistic reasons people end up retiring their belts. It just means the belt outlasted the waistline. Was leatherwork something passed down in your family?
Qingyang: Not at all. It was purely a hobby. I figured everything out on my own, step by step.
What Makes a Belt Truly Good
Marcus: In your eyes, what makes a truly good belt, and what do most people overlook?
Qingyang: The most important thing about a good belt, or any good leather product, is that it grows more beautiful the more it's used. It carries the traces of its owner's life. Think of a pair of jeans: the black surface fades, the stud plating slowly wears, and those layers of color end up recording everything the wearer has lived through. Most people assume a leather product is at its most beautiful the day it's new. I believe the opposite. A piece that records your life and travels with you is the one that's truly at its best.
Marcus: Completely agree. I don't think anything else gets better with age the way leather does. The piece I love most is a sheepskin single-rider jacket I bought back in high school. It's the oldest, most beaten-up thing I own, but my life and my habits have soaked into it, and that's made it the one jacket that's truly mine. I've bought plenty of leather since, and honestly nothing has aged as beautifully. (laughs) So why studded belts in particular? What pulled you toward this craft?
Why Studded Belts
Qingyang: I first encountered studded belts around 2014. At first it was the individuality, the self-expression they represented. But the deeper I went, the more I realized they carried American culture from the 1930s and 40s. That fascinated me even more. I wanted to make authentic studded belts, and through them, travel back to that golden era together with the people who wear them.
The Years-Long Search for the Right Hide
Marcus: Leather is the foundation of all of this. How do you choose it?
Qingyang: Leather is the single most important material in a belt. I look at density, the dyeing process, the oil content. But the quality I value most is what I call "bone structure": the leather has to hold both firmness and elasticity at once. To find it, I bought and compared hides from more than ten tanneries: Horween, W&C, Hermann Oak, Tochigi, Shonan, J&F of England, SDS of Argentina. Even after all that, nothing felt ideal. In the end I chose American saddle leather hides, tanned in China, and then I hand-dye them myself. As the belt is worn, the black surface wears away to reveal the brown core underneath. That's where the vintage character comes from.
Marcus: That's a remarkable amount of effort. Honestly, very few people would agonize over a belt to that degree, and it shows. Beyond the tea-core effect, what I love is the way the belt sits: when it's cinched, it holds your body in a stable, reassuring way. And that heavy-duty thickness is exactly my kind of thing.
In Part 2, Qingyang takes us inside the workshop: the step-by-step making of a studded belt, the hunt for era-correct hardware and pre-1992 gemstones, and what he hopes you feel the day yours arrives.
Explore the full lineup in the Studded Belts collection.
Handmade, one belt at a time
Diamond, Rodeo, and Montgomery, each cut, dyed, and studded by hand from American saddle leather.
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