Used and abused | Hexatac HMB
After one year of intense use and testing, we gathered enough impressions to write a unbiased review.
The HMB is made of modern materials that we see on a regular basis these days. With the clever use of tegris and tubular webbing they achived a lightweight belt.
The HMB comes with two belts:
A Velcro under-belt (38mm) that fits basically any Pant and features loop-velcro and a G-hook as „buckle“
an outer belt (50mm) with a nice, non-itching hook-velcro to fix it to your inner belt. The hook velcro feels very smooth, similar to the one found on OneWrap velcro. It also contains a material that makes it a bit stiff so it won’t loose its shape.
The laser-cut tegris skeleton – which also is your molle/pals platform – provides great rigidity to support heavy pouches, holsters and other stuff you mount to it. The belts edges and skeleton is encased with a layer of fabric.
Under the tegris you have your tubular webbing that connects to the Cobra buckle. This makes the HMB capable to be used for rappelling.
The overall design of the HMB belt makes it possible to have mounting loops all around the wearer, regardless of whether he is at the upper or lower limit of the chosen size.
The size can br adjusted quite quickly, so if you change your clothing layers or borrow it a friend, you could adjust the belt’s size on the fly within no time at all.
Also, the tubular webbing for size adjustment is redirected back from the buckle to the inside, which avoids external clutter and allows you to really take advantage of the presence of mounting points all around this belt.
We tested the belt with and without leg loops for rappelling. Due to the smart use of proper materials, it‘s definitly possible and it feels quite comfortable but please keep in mind that the belt isn’t officialy weight rated.
The Arcteryx leg loops make a great addition to the belt to make it a proper rappeling setup on the go.
Tests by Hexatac provided the following data: “breaking load tests in realistic conditions* have shown that the AustriAlpin buckle (Certified 15KN) would break before any seams in the belt were worried at a load of approximately 1350kg (for realistic conditions with a load pulled across the D-ring perpendicular to the belt).”
HEXATAC is a brand based in france. While they used to be a webshop, retailing different brand’s equipment they now focus on becoming their own label.
With the HMB they developed a solid belt system that is up for its tasks at any given moment.
We are also using their HMCR chestrig at the moment, which is a very promising platform aswell.
Grab yours >> www.hexatac.com/boutique
Special thanks to our friend THATGEARADDICT for writing up that review for AMNB. It’s always good to know the right people in the industry to work with!
