Traditional leather belts will normally fray at hole where you set the buckle prong. In my case it normally happens 6 months into almost daily use. With the ratchet belt, this does not happen. So the leather will last you a long while. The belt fit is also not constrained by 1 inch increments, the normal hole spacing on leather belts. You have 5 ridges per inch on the leather where the buckle’s ratchet system canlock on to. So, you almost have an infinite waist sizes in between the 6 inches of ridges placed on the leather belt. I m left handed. So, I set my belt thru left sided which put the release lever at the bottom side which is perfect for me. So the only suggestion to Chaoren is to make the belt buckles for left sided or right sided belt setting.