Case Study - Kids Tool Belt

Aim : To take the existing archival sample of the Buckaroo Buddy Belt, and refine this with greater consideration for the Children aged 3-12 as an end user, maintaining the product DNA that makes it a Buckaroo belt; incredibly durable, Australian leather and labour, high quality hardware, and ergonomics at its core.

The first thing we noticed was that the Kids Tool Belt was quite heavy and rigid in its materiality, aligning perhaps too closely to our All-rounder belt, to the detriment of the comfort for play. 

With the aim to reduce the overall weight, we started by stripping back the archival Buckaroo Buddy Belt and looking to our range of hardware solutions to see if there were more appropriate fixture options. The buckle used on the outer-belt was replaced with snap fits on both sides, reducing the weight and making it much easier to fit the frogs, allowing the kids to set up their rig without help, promoting greater independence in their play.  

To further reduce the weight, we swapped out the heavy-duty rubber conveyor that forms the core of our belt range, to 3mm thick leather. This still gives plenty of durability, being fit for years of hard work fun, though with greater confirmability to littler bodies, and not requiring a ‘break in’ period to soften up. This is re-enforced with our Australian woven webbing, and backed by our Wool + Viscose felt lining so its comfy, durable and better suited for a younger user.

We took our premium nickel-plated casual belt hardware from the KSB Leather Uniform Belt and placed this at the main buckle, keeping that Buckaroo design language, though with some softer forms and rounded edges.

The leather buckle mount and belt tip were spec’d as 4mm leather, reducing the stiffness, and shaving a little more weight off too, when compared to the 5mm of the archival sample.

The Frogs that were selected as part of the kit are the Hold All Pouch, the Hammer, and Nipps frogs. These use all the same leather, hardware and manufacturing techniques as our production pieces; however we shortened the belt loop to make them sit a little higher and reduce the swing when loaded up. We added a custom debossed logo unique to the range.

The suspenders remained largely the same, however we added a loop at the back to give somewhere to hang these up at the end of a long day of play.

In the end, we managed to increase the comfort and reduce the overall weight by 20% (473g new / 591g old), reducing the strain on little users so they can play for longer – as verified by our team of field testers.