Thursday, June 15, 2017

C4 Belts

I had really good intentions to get up early and whipping through chores here so I could dash out to the barn and ride Ruby, but when I woke up everything was soggy and it was raining. Soooooo.... I didn't do that. No complaints from me, we needed the rain. And it gave me time to work on this half-finished draft that's been hanging out for a few weeks, so win-win!
Although this post will contain less horse and goat photos than usual.
I'm an impulse shopper -- that's not a secret. It's definitely worse when I'm stressed. Also not really a secret, haha. After Rolex, my friends and I have started referring to my binges as "life choices". Last month, life choices were made when C4 Belts had a BOGO sale.

In my defense, I've been wanting a C4 belt for a while now. I almost gave in to temptation earlier this year when they had a BOGO sale, but it was right before Rolex so I figured I should save my money. I also thought they might have some fun sales at Rolex, and I'd get a chance to actually see them up close. I was pretty disappointed by their "sale" at Rolex, but I did spend some time in the booth checking them out in terms of feel and the patterns, so I mentally added them to my list of things to buy at a future date.  
And then last month C4 had another BOGO sale, to make up for their website crashing during the previous one. So I started playing with their belt configuration tool and mixing and matching and seeing what I could come up with. Of course the first belt in my cart was the teal one (was there even a question?). And then I spotted a dachshund one. Duh. I kept scrolling through patterns and a few more caught my eye, so I figured why not? Had to meet the free shipping threshold, obviously!
This has me written all over it.
I found myself more than a little frustrated with the C4 mobile site -- it was not at all easy to navigate and it was a total pain to try to figure out what was in my cart when I kept trying different combinations. At several points, I almost just said fuck it and didn't buy any belts, that's how frustrating it was.
Uhhh, can't see which items I'm trying to delete?
Oh good now I can see them, but I can't delete them. Awesome.
After dithering for a while on patterns and buckles and choices and emptying and refilling my cart probably no less than 10 times, I finally decided to buy them. So I went through all the steps and submitted my payment. And then.....
Did I buy belts? Did I not buy belts? I guess we'll never know!
I was more than a little worried when the charge went through on PayPal but I didn't get any kind of email confirmation (plus, you know, the crash page), so I dropped an email to C4 customer service just to verify that they received my order. I didn't expect to hear back right away, because I figured if I had the problem, everyone was probably also having the problem. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within half an hour confirming my order -- customer service FTW!
Braided like Otto and my Stubben grab strap? Yes please.
So then all that was left was to wait for my belts to arrive. I spent that time grumbling at a friend who lives WAYYYY farther from the C4 shipping site than I do, and yet somehow received her belts 2 days ahead of me. Because that TOTALLY MAKES SENSE USPS. But I digress.
So the belts eventually arrived in their fun little boxes with their stickers -- exciting! Except then I had to cut them, and I'm alarmingly type A so I obsessed over that for a while. Finally I bit the bullet and cut the dachshund belt first, and the rest of the belts followed. I am super bad at ROOTD type photos and I never remember to have DH snap a pic of me wearing them, but I really love them! I have even been wearing them to work (usually just on casual Fridays haha). I was initially going to make this a "tack review" type post, since I haven't done one of those for a while, but I feel like I need more photos of them in action -- plus I want to abuse them a bit and see how they hold up.
Please ignore my messy house and table in need of refinishing haha.
I know lots of bloggers out there have C4 belts -- what's your favorite pattern? How have you found their longevity? Do you like the custom aspects of the C4s (changeable buckles, one size cut to fit, etc), or do you prefer "normal" belts? Weigh in!

30 comments:

  1. I wonder how your braided one will hold up compared to the solid ones. So far I love mine (and I liked being able to cut it to actually fit me well).

    I definitely bought it because my cheap WalMart ones bend in the back and so far the C4 has held up wonderfully. If your braided one holds up as well I really like that one and it may be in my future. ;)

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    1. It was on clearance, so not sure if that means the pattern is discontinued? Hopefully it holds up!

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  2. I didn't know there was a braided one. Interesting.

    My non-patterned C4 have held up great. I have the old model patterned belt and most all the color rubbed off. :-( In fairness to C4, they apparently fixed the problem and then offered to replace belts like mine. That would have involved doing something (emailing them? don't remember) and I didn't, so that's kinda my own damn fault.

    Curious to see how the new patterns hold up! I'm wearing my corgi belt as we speak.

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    1. Yeah I'm interested to see how the patterns hold up -- especially since I bought 3 patterned and only 1 plain! Oops, haha.

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  3. I have one C4 belt and I actually don't like it very much. It's a bit too wide, the buckle is too bulky, and I'm just not in love with the way it fits or feels. My super-stretchy Hunt Club belt is still my go-to, and I honestly rarely pull out the C4!

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    1. I wasn't necessarily in love with the buckle the first time I put one on but then after a minute I didn't notice it anymore.

      Super stretchy hunt club belt huh? Might have to go browse! 😉

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    1. If only the sale had been on a day I was less stressed haha. Stress = going overboard with shopping. Oh well. Belts are useful at least!

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  5. I wear my blue heeler one all the time. I've worn my Chicago skyline one way less (like maybe a dozen times total) and it's already rubbed the pattern almost completely off in places.

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    1. Ouch, that sucks about the skyline one :( with the sale I only paid like $16 per belt so I guess if they don't hold up it's not tragic. But I hope they last!

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  6. very snazzy. I've heard good things about them.

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    1. Yeah me too, so the BOGO was too good to pass up! Haha

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  7. I've just got one so far and I really like it. If I saw a BOGO sale I'd probably get two more. I ALWAYS have to wear belts because of my build so more belts is always a plus for me.

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    1. Sign up for their email list and they'll notify you 😉 I think they do it annually?

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  8. I like the idea of these, and I own a couple of them. The one that I wear most frequently is looking pretty rough; I've had it about a year and probably wear it 3-4x/week, and the pattern is totally rubbed off in some places. I'm happy with how the belt has kept its shape, and I think they're comfortable, but the rubbed-off print has made me rethink buying more.

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    1. Yeah the rubbing off of the printed ones is definitely something I was concerned about (obviously not TOO concerned, lol). I am glad I grabbed the print ones on sale, if they start showing wear I'll be less annoyed than if I paid retail, so there's that.

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  9. I think if you have enough of them they hold up just fine! Ha... Shut up, I know I have a problem.
    I've got like 10 million of them now, so none get worn excessively. But so far they're all holding up well. I do like the cut to fit. I'm waiting for a pug one, that will definitely be my favorite if they make it. But I think the hunt scene one may be my current fave.

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    1. Hahahaha I don't think I'll ever be on your level 😋 I hope they come out with a pug one soon, you definitely need it to go with all your other pug clothing/accessories 😀

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  10. I love my C4 belt, though the pattern is starting to rub off (purple with snaffle bits). The actual belt has held up to all sorts of abuse and was even used to catch a loose horse one time. I like being able to get it exactly the size I want and being able to swap out buckles.

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    1. Sad that the pattern is starting to wear, but awesome that it's been so versatile for you!

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  11. <3 C4 and love your belt choices!

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  12. I love their designs, but their too wide and stiff for me.

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    1. Even their skinny ones? Yeah they are a little stiff. But I love all the designs!

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  13. I see these belts everywhere, but have never checked out the site. I think I need to go look...

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    1. You should! Their website has all the fun patterns, but you can also get some of the basic ones from Riding Warehouse a little cheaper using a coupon code 😋

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    2. I lost a LOT of time on that site yesterday...

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    3. Pretttttty sure they're running a 20% off summer sale.... Just sayin' 😋

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