I'm sure it's real leather. That is hard; not very flexible and difficult to bend; I widened the holes on the back and replaced the buckle with a brass buckle, maybe it's impregnated with some kind of polymer? This is a great gun belt. I love it and it's perfect for my purposes. I followed all the instructions but they are shorter than expected; I have a lot of holes when I'm skinny but only three when I'm fat, right? Should I have ordered the next larger size? Maybe we'll all lose weight in the years to come?