We Found Out Why Some Jeans Have Those Tiny Secondary Belt Loops

One of the great things about working at the radio station is you never know what kind of conversations you're going to have. Compared to other workplaces, we're a little more, let's say, "liberal" with our language when we're not on the air, and we'll often ask each other completely random questions. This is one of those instances.

I was sitting in my office Tuesday working on something when our Digital Managing Editor, Ashley walked in and asked out of the blue, "Are you wearing jeans today?" The answer to which was, "yes," as it is 99.9999% of the time. Once we established that fact, she followed up with, "Do they have extra, tiny belt loops?" I think my initial response was a confused look on my face, followed by, "What?" She then proceeded to show me what she was talking about. Each and every belt loop on her jeans featured the main loop like nearly every other pair of pants created has, but each one also featured a smaller loop underneath it as illustrated in the photo above.

What Do You Use Them For?

She proceeded to tell me that she went around the office and found that every woman who was wearing jeans today also had these extra loops, while every guy, including me, did not. Go ahead and look on your own jeans... I'll wait.

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The Theories...

We debated amongst ourselves what the purpose of these extra loops could be. She thought they could be used as handles to help pull up sagging pants. However, that theory was shot down quickly once she realized the extra loops were featured all around the waistline, not just on the sides (only someone with some odd wedgie fetish would hike their sagging pants up from one loop on the back, not that I'm judging. You do you.)

My thought was maybe they're there for holding a rope belt in place. Not an actual rope, per se, but one that has a similar look. Although, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's a social media influencer out there who has a gazillion followers because people are loving their "rope chic" look.

Fun fact: I looked up "rope chic" on Google after typing that sentence, turns out it is kind of a thing because why not?

What Purpose DO They Serve?

After a couple of minutes of sharing possible theories, I finally searched Google to see what we could find out.

One result was a six-year-old post under the sub-Reddit, malefashionadvice where one user suggested they were for shoelaces, particularly on a pair of "skater jeans." Their theory seemed to be that belt buckles often got in the way when skateboard riders tried to do tricks, so the loops provided a way for them to hold their pants up while doing kickflips, nose grinds, and ollies.

Another suggested they served as a backup in case the main loop broke which I thought was a reasonable explanation.

Considering Reddit, like most social media, is mostly people with opinions rarely backed up by facts, I continued searching. That's when I landed on the Heddels website. An online publication they say is "dedicated to helping people own things they want to use forever," most of which seems to be centered around clothing.

According to their Dictionary section:

Some styles of jeans also have double belt loops with a smaller loop underneath the visible loop to allow for both thinner and wider belts, with thinner belts going through the inner loops and wider belts going through the outer loops.

Heddels explanation doesn't explicitly say these are only a feature on women's jeans, so it's entirely possible if you're a guy, you, or even I, have a pair of jeans at home that also feature these extra loops.

Although, if that is the case, the only way I'm wearing a belt that either is a rope or looks like a rope, is if my regular belt breaks and that's the only option I have to get me by until I get a new one. Even then, I can guarantee you I'll feed it through the main loop.

[Sources: Reddit / Heddels]