When High Speed Gear founder Gene Higdon came out of retirement to found Mean Gene Leather, we were ecstatic.  Gene was a leather goods guy long before he started working in ballistic nylon, and so it seemed only natural for him to move back into premium hand-crafted leather goods.

MGL’s first product, launched in November, was the MGL Barbarian Gun Belt, featuring the COBRA buckle favored by many professionals.

The turn-off of a COBRA buckle, unfortunately, is that it is over-sized, and you have to take part of the buckle off to thread the belt through your belt loops. Also, for those “in the know,” a COBRA buckle screams “concealed carry” almost as loud as wearing “tactical” clothing, so using a COBRA-equipped belt it makes discrete concealed carry a little more difficult.

Gene called me earlier this week to announce that he’s introducing a new gun belt with another high-performance buckle option.

Feast your eyes on the new “MGL Victory Aegis” Belt.

Today MGL take Great Pride in announcing it’s newest belt to it’s lineup, the “MGL Victory Aegis” Belt. Combining the MGL Leather Belts to the Ares Gear Aegis Belt Buckles, to deliver every person’s dream of what a belt needs to be. Special “Thanks” goes out to Matt Jacques of Victory First to brainchild this belt and to Ares Gear, LLC to grant MGL “Exclusives” to combine their fine product to leather.

Details to follow soon on When , Where and How much.

This belt will feature a hand-stitched full-grain leather gun belt and an Ares Gear Aegis belt buckle. The Aegis is made out of machined stainless steel, and will be available in several colors, as will the belts. Details on when it will be available for sale, at how much, and where, are forthcoming.

It is surprising to us that people will go out and spend $350-$1,200 on a handgun for concealed carry, another $40-$100 for a good holster, and more for spare magazines and magazine pouches, and then attempt to hang all that on a $25 split-grain leather belt from a malnourished cow made in Sri Lanka. Soon enough, these weak belts designed only to keep your pants up begin to stretch and roll under the vertical pressure of a holstered weapon.

The end result is almost invariably an uncomfortable experience, where the weight of the gun is concentrated on where it is sitting on your belt, and the feeling that the gun is digging into you.

A purpose-built gun belt is much stiffer than your average belt, and is designed to distribute the weight of a handgun over a much wider area, making for much more comfortable carry. I know a number of guys who have spent hundreds of dollars cycling through different type of holsters, in different materials, attempting to find a more comfortable way to carry their “heater,” only to discover that their problem all along was trying to use a flimsy belt made out of second-rate materials. As soon as they upgraded to a purpose-designed gun belt, it made all the difference.

We’re looking forward to testing this belt out soon.

Stay tuned.