• Your shopping cart is empty!

Colors and Materials

Lagarto uses only the finest materials available for every aspect of production. If there's a finer source of anything he uses, that new source replaces previous sources. A lot of time and thought has been put into choosing the most durable materials, to ensure the longest serviceable life possible. Lagarto is very opposed to "planned obsolescence" and strives to make gear as durable and appealing as it can be.

All Lagarto Gear leather products are made using materials that are by-product of the food industry. No animals were raised specifically for their hair or hide. Lagarto only builds with the hides of herbivores, including buffalo, cow, deer, elk, and rabbit. Lagarto will not use the hides of omnivores or carnivores like pigs, reptiles, vulpines, and others.

The leather used is the finest available in the world - supplied by the best and most reliable tanneries. It is purchased as entire hides (or sides), and is precisely cut for use in the finished products available here. Range marks and scars are left out as scrap, so your pieces are perfect.

Colorful PVC coated polyester webbing is called GatorStrap, is made in the USA, regarded as the industry standard. PVC products have undergone extensive in-house testing has shown no harmful chemistry reactions with human skin, even on sensitive individuals.

Because some people have allergies to nickel and nickel finished metal hardware, ALL items are constructed from stainless steel hardware, used for all builds (unless you select brass), including buckles, keeper loops, D-rings, O-rings, and rivets - so if you have sensitivity to Nickel, no need to worry! The only nickel plated hardware offered is with the decorations & locking components, so please ask BEFORE ORDERING if you have any concerns. Snap hooks used for leashes and cuff connectors may be upgraded to stainless steel if you request it, for $2 per hook.

As of June 2016, all new gear is made with stainless steel domed rivets, instead of the nickel plated steel type Lagarto had been using. It took YEARS of searching, but a manufacturer who was willing to make rivets out of Stainless Steel, just like the buckles and rings, was finally found.

Powder coating begins with blasting stainless steel (or nickel plated specialty hardware like locking posts) buckles, loops, rings and rivets to a rough surface, then coating them with colorful polymer plastic powder (a high voltage electrostatic process), then baking the parts in an oven. The plastic powder flows to a smooth finish and chemically changes in the heat. The final finish is tough and durable. It's 5 times more durable than nickel plating. The powder coating may rub away over time on contact areas like roller buckles where buckle prongs scratch them continuously.

Lagarto uses the same techniques and metal parts for GatorStrap building as leather building. There are some benefits and concerns with GatorStrap versus leather that you should understand before making a decision about the right gear to purchase:

  • PVC coated polyester webbing is STRONGER than latigo leather. If you put extreme stress on it, the weak point is the metal rivets, not the strap. If you break your rivets, they will be replaced at no charge, you only have to pay the shipping charges for this service.
  • PVC can take on stains, so if you plan to expose your gear to dyed jeans, dyed hair, sharpie markers, or other types of dye, PLEASE SELECT DARK COLORS or BLACK, which will not show these stains. White, any of the UV reactive colors, and other light colors will show dye stains more prominently than black, royal blue, purple, and chocolate brown.
  • GatorStrap used by Lagarto is a PVC product, so if you have a latex allergy, no worries.
  • You can get your GatorStrap wet and keep it wet (unlike leather, which will eventually split/crack from immersion in water).
  • You can WASH your GatorStrap gear - in plain tap water, or with a little soap if your gear gets greasy from body oils or other foreign materials.
  • Bodily fluids will not harm your GatorStrap gear. Rinse fluids away with tap water prior to storing your gear.

Do you have any questions about what you can or can't do with your gear? Please use the "contact Lagarto" link at the bottom of any page on this website.

Here are the chap colors Lagarto currently has in house:
Black
Red
Brown (dark chocolate brown)
Brown (tobacco middle brown)
Yellow
Light Lime Green
Lime Green
Green
Forest Green
Baby Blue
Royal Blue
Purple
Flesh Pink
Hot Pink
Fuchsia (purplish red)
Gray
White