What Are Seat Belt Seconds?

Seat Belt Seconds:

Seat belt seconds are an aftermarket seat belt webbing that is usually not purchased directly from the manufacturer, and describes nearly 100% of seat belt webbing available to non-OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) companies.  This seat belt webbing carries a number of different names, and the name may be indicative of the quality of the material.  Some names for after-market seat belt webbing encountered in the marketplace include first quality, seconds, over-runs, and leaders.   The quality of this webbing, except webbing described, as leaders is often of premium quality, but does not carry the manufacturer’s certification.  Certification of the webbing is, for all intents and purposes, a manufacturer’s warranty that the webbing meets certain specifications.  Certified webbing is usually only available directly from the webbing manufacturer and is purchased in large quantities by OEM companies.  The vast majority of seat belt webbing in the aftermarket marketplace will not carry a certification, and is described as non-certified webbing.  An example of a source of this type of seat belt seconds are overruns where the manufacturer produced more webbing than the customer ordered, for a number of reasons, and has no need for the additional material.   Other sources include retired colors, gloss levels, and weaving patterns, or subtle, aesthetic weaving errors, which do not otherwise affect webbing quality.