Review: Marlondo Leather Belt, Mouse Pad and Valet

I'm going to briefly review the remaining Marlondo Leather pieces I ordered. If you have read my previous entries, you might have known I have a thing for leather. Leather products are just classy and the good ones gets better looking with age.

First up, the Marlondo Belt. This is a really hefty belt and feels very substantial when I hold it. It's made from two pieces of full grain leather stitched back-to-back. Click pictures to enlarge. The belt is 4cm wide and 0.4cm thick.

The buckle is made from solid brass and is quite heavy. Chicago screws are brass as well and it gives the belt a slightly rustic feel. Even the back of the belt keeper has a brass rivet on it for added strength.

The buckle is held together by another piece of leather which is lined with pigskin. This piece is then screwed onto the belt itself. So if you wanted to use your own buckle, it would be really easy to switch it out.

This leather has the same pull-up characteristic I mentioned earlier in my pigskin-lined ID wallet.Check out the wrinkles caused by the stress on the holes. It actually came out of the box with the wrinkles.

It's not clear in the picture below but when I wear it, it doesn't sit flush. This is because the holes are punched straight into the belt. With such a thick belt, I would suggest the holes to be punched at an angle to reduce the stress placed on the belt holes when worn.

 

 I don't know what's with all the products from Marlondo, but they seem to be scratched right out the box. This one is scratched pretty badly on one part of the belt. It seems like the top layer has been scratched off and it feels velvety (almost suede like) on these areas. In fact the only scratch-free part of the belt was the front part of the leather which holds the buckle (can be seen in the picture above with the Chicago screws) and this part feels so good, smooth and buttery.

 

Now for the mouse pad. It's a pretty straight-forward piece which measures 11" x 8.8" and roughly 2.5mm thick. At the time I ordered I was told it was going to be 11.5"x9", but it is just a slight difference and not a big deal. This piece is lined with pigskin. From the website it says modifications to it could be done in terms of number of rivets and stitching line. I did not specify at time of ordering and I am glad it came the way it did.

Pigskin lining

 

 Once again, the leather came with scuffs on it which could not be buffed out and the dye on this mouse pad rubs off on my cloth and fingers. Even the slightest scratch would leave a permanent scar on it. These scuffed parts feels really dry, as though the leather has cracked on that area.

Lastly, a leather valet which I had custom made for me. Initially I had ordered it to be pigskin lined, but later decided I wanted it to be lined with another piece of leather. The leather valet is very nicely constructed and really hefty. Copper rivets were used although I showed him pictures of one with button snaps. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but I figured button snaps would make it more convenient for storage.

Check out the thickness of the leather!

Brass rivets on the corners.

The bottom part of the valet which is the outer leather layer is so smooth and nice. I love the looks and texture of it. Look at a close up shot of the bottom below.

But on the inside..it's absolutely horrid. I wished the both leathers were used the other way around, that way inside would be smooth and nice while the other piece remain hidden underneath the valet. The leather inside feels dry, rough, scuffed up and wrinkled. Again, the dye on the inside rubs off a lot. Surprisingly though, the dye of the leather underneath doesn't rub off.

Overall, I feel that quality control is still an issue in Marlondo Leather Co. For a company which takes pride in producing high quality products, these sort of stuffs pulls them back from being able to really excel in this department. Perhaps being a smaller company, they try to minimize wastage but sending customers damaged leather is something that should be avoided at all cost to avoid taking a hit to their reputation.

Feel free to leave a comment.  I will respond as soon as I can. 

Comparison between new and old Marlondo ID Wallet

A little while ago I have reviewed an old style (prior to relaunch of Marlondo's product line) ID wallet. It had some flaws here and there and I decided to order the updated version of the ID wallet to do a comparison along with a couple of other products which will be reviewed at a later date. I had placed an order for both the pigskin lining and a suede lining ID wallet which arrived in a few weeks.

First I will do a comparison between the new suede lining and the old suede lining wallet.

Both the newer version came in the same size as the old one, which I was hoping would not be the case. The wallet is just too huge for someone who is looking for a smaller profile one, which is most likely why anyone would buy this type of wallet instead of the traditional bi-fold type.

The plastic on the ID cover has changed. It came in a more glossy version which in my opinion is of lower quality plastic compared to the older one which is matte and smooth. The glossy one had scratches all over it right off the bat. I am still debating whether or not I should try to cut it off. The only thing stopping me from cutting it is the fact that my ID card could potentially just fall out from the ID hole which is pretty big.

Newer suede ID wallet on the left, older on the right

The newer leather is different. It is thicker and smooth, but not as smooth as the older leather. The newer leather is a tad stiffer than the older one as well.

Newer on the left, older on the right

Newer on top, older at the bottom

I inserted one card in each of the credit card slots to compare. The older one had a problem with the top slot, whereby the credit card slot is sewn slightly slanted, which results in the card not sitting correctly. This particular problem is not detected on the newer ID wallet.

However, you could see in the pictures that the newer ID wallet had another issue with the top slot. The cards sit too high up to the edge. I am not sure whether it is a design or an error with the stitching, but with such a huge wallet where space is not an issue, I don't see why the need to make the cards sit so high up the edge.  Also, more of the top card is exposed as compared to the bottom one. It just doesn't make it aesthetically pleasing.

Newer on the left, older on the right

If I'm being nitpicky, I will add that the stitching line hasn't improved a whole lot on this one. The bottom stitch is slightly crooked on the right side. Very slight slant.

New suede ID wallet

One thing they have improved on is the hidden card slot behind the ID slot. In the older model previously reviewed, cards would get caught in the leather on top of the slot because it was not glued down. On the new one, there was no excess leather and the stitching is at the edge of the leather.

On to the pigskin lining ID wallet. I believe the leather on this one is the latest one, which Ma (the owner of Marlondo Leather Co.) himself takes pride upon. It is even thicker and stiffer than the leather used above and have a pull-up character to it. This means that where the leather is bent or stressed, the color would become lighter and shows the distressed mark on it. This leather, as commented by Ma, is custom made from the US and is only available to Marlondo Leather Co.

Pigskin lined on top, suede lined(new) below

 I don't know what is with this leather, but it picks up every bit of scuff marks on them, and I do mean EVERY BIT. Again, it came scuffed right out of the box. Usually with leather products, lighter scuff marks could be rubbed or buffed off. With this particular leather, the scuffs could not be buffed out easily, if not at all. The scratches on this leather sorts of removes the top layer of the leather, which exposes the lighter color underneath. I could imagine this whole wallet looking completely different in just one week of use and I don't mean that in a good way. Character marks is desirable, but too much of it would make the leather look old and dry in my opinion.

Another thing to note is that the color rubs off this leather. When I tried rubbing the scuff marks off, my thumb was actually stained with the dye from the leather. This would mean that the leather was probably not finished properly.

I had this ID wallet customized with a smaller ID hole so I could push my ID out easily since I would have to remove it from the wallet itself whenever my ID is needed. This ID slot was cut a little too wide in my opinion, but it doesn't cause any problems. As you can see in the ID slot, there is pigskin on the back. The pigskin from Marlondo is smooth, shiny and soft. I was under the impression that all pigskin is hard and rough.

Pigskin with small ID slot

Similar to the one above, this one has also improved on the hidden slot behind the ID slot.

 

Again, this one has the top card sitting much higher than the bottom one, and it seems that the bottom slot is stitched much more slanted. It's really a turn off. You be the judge here.

On this wallet, the stitching quality seems to have deteriorated, leaving much to be desired. This is one of the thing that bugs me a lot, especially since this is machine stitched. The threads in some area wasn't even cut or singed and just left hanging there. In this particular wallet, the stitching is really crooked.

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed with the wallets especially the stitching and the way the cards ride so high in the slots. The quality seems to defer between the wallets and their quality control has to be improved. Perhaps Marlondo's expertise lies only within leather bags as those bags seems to be getting lots of attention among leather enthusiasts. I will be ordering an ID wallet from Saddleback Leather Co. and hopefully it will be better in terms of workmanship and quality. I will put them up in the blog for a comparison when I get it.

I have several other small leather products from Marlondo Leather which I will review soon.