The Simple Belt Idea Worth $500,000

[leadin]Belts. They hold up your pants. Not much to change, right?[/leadin]

Apparently not. A minor change to an age-old product has captured the imaginations, and dollars, of one heck of a lot of people.

Meet the MagBelt, a belt that uses magnets to adjust and secure shut. It has raised an epic $500,000 on Kickstarter.

MagBelt Design

The MagBelt’s simple but revolutionary design is appealing. Two magnets — one adjustable inside the belt, another fixed to the end — coupled with a buckle make for easy adjustment and closure with no loose ends.

The design is slick, made in the USA, and affordable at $24.

Why the popularity? Well, watch the video below, which is about the best product pitch we’ve seen yet.

Intriguing, right? Build a better belt, and the world will beat a path to your door.

With the huge success of the launch (the company hoped to raise just $7,500!), it has added some cool designs, such as the ‘Merica buckle below.

Kickstarter can be a fickle platform, but this is just the kind of product that it’s made for. There is little risk to the consumer, and a couple clever inventors have made a bundle on what looks like a solid product.

Magnet Issues?

The only flaw we can think of is the potential to wreck credit and other cards with magnetic strips, but that seems like a slight risk many are willing to take.

Or in the woods it could manipulate a compass needle — we’ve had this happen with backpacks equipped with magnets to keep hydration hoses in place.

If you’re looking for a new belt, check it out at the fundraiser page — you’ve got little to lose. But hurry, the campaign ends Sunday!