Makers? More like Fakers...

The GREAT "Maker" myth is one that will go down in the record books as one of the greatest hoaxes perpetuated on the West in history. Well maybe not quite the "GREATEST" hoaxes in history but it certainly is a hoax. You see hundreds of different companies on ebay when you do a search for wrestling belts. They all have sports themed names and have pro looking publicity shots in all of their listings. They really do look legit most of the time and when you see high resolution pictures and watermarks you feel a sense of comfort and relief which in turn loosens your grip on the wallet in your pocket. But if you search long enough you'll start to notice that sweet pictures on one listing are also being used by a different "company" and the watermarks have been swapped out for this new one. How can you possibly steal a watermarked photo and cleanly remove the watermark to replace it with one of your own? I'll tell you how... you have access to the original file. You have the right to remove that first watermark.

You see these two alleged companies don't actually exist. 99% of the companies on ebay or in your Instagram / Facebook message requests folder (shout out spam filters on Meta - a rare Zuckerberg W) are just manufactured accounts of individual citizens of Pakistan who are selling wrestling belts that they did not make, will never make and cannot make. If you place an order they will take some of the money you have given them and go to "market" in Sialkot, Pakistan where there is some actual masonry going on. A small factory region in the city that can produce CNC belts and Acid Etched plates. Depending on factors like... which Pakistani man you paid, how in debt said Pakistani man already is to the market, how many followers you have on social media, how big a reputation you have in the belt community on FB, how lofty a promise you make to them about future purchases... you will likely wind up with a belt ranging from a cheap brass gold PAINTED (not plated) piece of trash to a semi-decent reproduction of a Jakks toy belt. On Ebay you are pretty anonymous to the purveyor of the fake company selling the belt. This almost never will work in your favor. But the largest factor almost always will be how much you paid and that gets me to my next point.

THERE ARE NO MAGICAL DEALS COMING OUT OF PAKISTAN & YOU ALMOST ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. YOU WILL NEVER MORE THAN WHAT YOU PAY FOR... ONLY LESS.

Listen, I have spent a lot of money on belts. I have a big social media platform relative to most in the community. It's all organic (no fake followers, bot armies or any of that bullshit) which is 10x more valuable than a hundred thousand fly by night follows who don't engage with posts. I'm not saying this to brag, but to make a point. Actual belt makers and a few middlemen who think I believe their BS about being makers have a sincere reason to deliver me the best version of their product that they can. If they mess up they know they are going to get blasted on my IG (800k+ viewers in the last 30 days) and TRIPLE BLASTED on the FB groups where I would have no problem going long form on a negative review. It could knock them out of the game for good. With all of that working in my favor I still run into quality control problems. Now let's take all of those factors out of your situation as a brand new buyer on ebay or a similar platform. You send them money without a drop of proof that they have the belt in the listing. When you do a reverse image search on it you get hits to six other sellers on ebay. What incentive do they have to take the money you gave them and spend most of it on a good belt? Now after you answer that... tackle this question: if you give them 350 dollars and they take 25% of that as profit leaving about $250 to buy a belt, ship the belt internationally and pay export fees... do you think you are going to get anything that looks like the one you grew up watching on television? I rest my case. 

JUST BECAUSE THE "MAKERS" ARE WELL KNOWN AND HAVE A FOLLOWING IN THE HOBBY (AND FANBOYS) DO NOT ASSUME THEY ACTUALLY MAKE BELTS.

It kind of broke my heart to find out one of the dudes who mentored me on facebook about the hobby was actually just shilling for a Paki middleman who pretends to be a belt maker. This info usually comes out when the "maker" doesn't deliver on their lofty commission promises to the stateside guy who goes from group to group on FB pimping the fake company. Unfortunately, just like our congressmen and women don't disclose their lobbyist ties... many of the reviews you see posted of foreign belts are just straight up bullshit being posted by the middleman's middleman because he was promised 5% of sales and free belts for his collection. The foreign fake belt maker never delivers on these promises and if they send any free belts to the sucker in America they are nowhere near the elite level belts they pretend to make. Yes occassionally fake companies like "Great Custom Belts" send a customer who paid a lot of money a very nice belt. It's an investment by GCB to buy a beautiful, expensive belt to a well known voice in the community as it turns into advertising for their charade.  MWBelts are another one of the most well known "makers", purportedly making indy wrestling companies's championships amongst other MMA organizations belts. It now is hitting the community that nearly every element of their products sold are outsourced (that's putting it nicely). 

THERE ARE OBVIOUSLY REAL BELT MAKERS IN PAKISTAN. BUT IT'S CLOSER TO 10 THAN 100 OR 1000.

Classic Shields, Altair Belts, ORM... these are foreign companies that are making what they are selling. I know ORM is importing leather from Italy and Zinc from America. I don't know the extent to which materials are brought in for everyone of these three companies but I do know that they are owners of the equiptment that they claim to own and are manufacturing their finished products. If I wrote this article three month ago there were more names I would have included on this list but in contacting a few companies to complain about issues with a belt I bought from them... I was told that they can't make it right because they don't handle that part of the manufacturing. I am talking about GOLD PLATING... ETCHING... MILLING... aka MAKING THE F'N BELT. It's unreal. If you stick to the three companies I mentioned in your overseas purchases you may run into issues such as $$ and wait times but you are actually getting a belt from them that they are responsible for. I have bought a lot of belts from CS and had one issue which was handled the same way Amazon handles it. You will never get that experience from 99% of the other "companies". 

I INVITE OTHERS TO PROVE ME WRONG; I AM NOT INFALLIBLE OR TOO PROUD TO ADMIT WHEN I AM WRONG. THIS IS ALL ACCURATE INFORMATION ACQUIRED THROUGH EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AND PARTICIPATION IN THE BUYING / SELLING PROCESS FOR OVER 3 YEARS. DON'T BE AFRAID TO REACH OUT.

I will happily redact anything that I have said incorrectly in this post. I am quite confident that won't be necessary but I am a man of my word. I genuinely hope that I have not given anyone credit where it isn't due either. But my advice is simple: don't buy cheap belts from over there. Ever. To circle back to the outset of the post... you aren't getting hooked up from some stranger with a pretend belt company. Think about how ridiculous that hope is. There is a ton of overlap between these fake belt companies and the scammer FB pages selling belts with other peoples photos and only accepting cash app and venmo. They thrive in both circumstances under the same premise: preying on the sucker who doesn't want to actually spend money a lot of money but wants a belt that costs a lot of money. DON'T BE THE SUCKER. That shit is a fantasy. Better chance of winning the lotto. 

LAST POINT. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN "HD" BELT OR AN "SD" BELT.

There are CNC Machine belts and Acid Etched belts. There are "hand carved" belts (almost NOBODY is actually doing this despite their 5 second video clips of using a hammer and chisel). Those are all methods of making a belt. There is no "HD" process to make a belt. There is just an HD process of molesting your wallet. Don't accept that someone sells a belt for 500 dollars more because its HD. Ask them what the differences are between these belts... if they want hundreds of dollars for an "SD" version with fake gold plating and cheaper metal which will tarnish and rust in no time then do you actually want to buy anything from them? It's my hope that with enough informed buyers out there we can drop this false construct which was created to rob us of more money. They are over there working together to divide us, rob us, mock us and flat out PLAY us. People gotta stop bickering on the home team and start communicating. Review your belts, be transparent about what you paid, review the source of the belt, show off your communications with them. With enough communication on our end we will not ever wind up paying too much for anything... or getting ripped off on a subpar piece of trash product from a con artist.