Adjustable running belts
The flat, non-stretchy Aikendo Running Belt stayed put near our tester’s natural waist during a 5-mile run, holding an iPhone XS and keys. The pocket is roomy, but the adjustable straps are especially stretchy—to the point where they feel like they could stretch out of shape much too quickly for our liking.
The Amphipod AirFlow Endurance Waistpack has a large, sturdy pocket and a good clasp that’s easy to fasten, and it absorbs moisture well. But we noticed the zipper was occasionally a little hard to close at times. And though we liked the storage compartments inside the main pouch (including three small pockets), it would have been helpful if they were colored differently, since the all-black design sometimes made it difficult to see whether items were going into the three pockets or behind them, into a larger divided area.
Compared with the softer pockets of other belts, the Amphipod AirFlow Lite’s structured pocket feels heavier and more solid when it’s packed with a phone, ID, and keys, and the super-stretchy belt doesn’t prevent bouncing.
The Amphipod AirFlow MicroStretch Plus and AirFlow MicroStretch Plus Luxe belts are identical, aside from their mesh fabric and nylon-polyester fabric, respectively. They also share a couple of flaws. On each one, the band is hard to adjust and too stretchy, so the pocket is more inclined to bounce. We also accidentally bumped the front-button buckle, and that sent the belt flying.
The AquaQuest Kona Pouch has an extra-roomy pocket and water-resistant coating, but it feels hot to wear. Also, smaller users may not be able to get a snug enough fit.
The E Tronic Edge running belt has a long reflective strip, and it’s somewhat comparable to our budget pick in design, minus the small separate pouch for keys. However, the zipper is extremely small, so our testers—even those with small fingers—found it hard to grasp.
The Fitletic Mini Sport Belt is a great minimalist running belt, with a sturdy, solid clasp. If you’re looking for a running belt with only one main pocket to hold the basics or just a phone, the Fitletic Mini is a good option. It also does a good job of wicking sweat. And when it’s worn under a shirt, it’s almost unnoticeable, so it’s a good storage option if your pants don’t have pockets. We did notice the belt sagged a little on longer runs.
The Nathan Laser Light 5K Belt RX is equipped with an integrated LED thread that beams 8 lumens of light. The lights are controlled by a small button on the side of the belt, and are rechargeable via USB-C. We found the lights plenty bright and easy to control. “I can see the belt being great for pacers or bikers leading a group at night,” one tester said. The belt also has decent storage space, with two zippered compartments. But three of our testers felt the belt fell short when it came to fit, as they all found themselves frequently having to adjust it during runs. “I had to stop, shorten the belt, and tuck away the extra” length on the straps, one noted.
The Nathan Zipster Fit Running Belt is like a pared-down version of the Nathan Zipster Max belt we recommend. One benefit of the Adjustable Fit Zipster is that you can hook and unhook the band over your waist, rather than having to slip it up over your legs, as you do with the Zipster Max. But the Adjustable Fit Zipster’s has a finicky clasp system, and two of our testers complained about one of the adjustment straps always dangling from the back.
The SPIbelt Large Pocket (formerly a pick in this guide) has a big zippered pouch and an ultra-stretchy band that fits most waists (you can also buy a waist extender for this model), and it doesn’t have annoying dangling tails. But in our latest round of testing, we found that items too frequently fell out of the pouch, particularly when we were trying to put things in and take them out on the go. We also experienced more-noticeable bounce, compared with using our current picks, and we could feel items moving around when we were running.
The SPIbelt Performance Series is lauded for its performance during marathons (it has four elastic loops made to hold energy gels), and it’s made of a weather-resistant fabric. Although the company clearly states that this belt is not waterproof, the contents of the pouch—including our phone—stayed dry during a very rainy 5-miler. The belt remained in position for most of our run, sitting flush and not riding up, but a few times it migrated upward, depending on what we wore underneath (a tight-fitting running top versus a looser T-shirt). Its pocket is roughly an inch longer than its sibling’s pocket, and retrieving items can be similarly involved. But it worked nicely for us.
An Amazon best seller, the Sport2People Running Belt consists of two long pockets and an adjustable elastic belt. This seems like a nice concept for organization, but in our tests the belt sat awkwardly when a large phone was in one of its pockets. It also failed to fit snugly and ended up bouncing a lot.
The U-Lanaro Slim Running Belt looks similar to the E Tronic Edge, but we found that the belt strap frequently loosened during a run and started to sag. Although it never seemed like it would slip off completely, the sagging was a noticeable distraction, no matter how tightly we adjusted the belt.
Continuous-waistband running belts
The popular FlipBelt Classic Running Belt and the FlipBelt Zipper are neither awful nor uncomfortable, but we liked other belts more. Our iPhone 8 Plus with a Speck case was a tight fit. More annoyingly, because the inside space is largely wide open from hip to hip, items can be hard to fish out, and the seamed edges of the band tend to curl and roll. The thicker-than-most material can get hot, too.
The Naked Running Band (formerly a pick in this guide) surprised us with how much it could hold and how well it kept items in place on long runs. But we experienced some sizing problems, with one tester thinking they’d need to go up one or two sizes than the company’s suggestion.
The Nathan Zipster Lite Running Belt is a smaller version of our upgrade pick, with less storage capability. Although it has four storage areas, like the Zipster Max that we recommend, an iPhone 14 did not fit in the zippered areas. And we found it was difficult to take a phone out of the stretchy side areas.
Our testers encountered more sizing issues with the Salomon Pulse than with the Nathan Zipster Max. We thought you’d need to carry a lot for this waistband to work, because otherwise items move around too much. It looks sleek, but there were more design flaws than we’d prefer. Another tester said, “The cinched stitching design on the top and bottom of the belt made it feel like it was cutting into my waist a little bit.”
The soft-fabric Stashbandz belt is wider than many models, and extra-large phones fit in its zipper pocket fine, but the zipper is inset with a small pull that gets lost in the fabric.
We found that the bottom edge of the Ultimate Direction Comfort Belt curled under in the front, and the back bunched up if not filled with stuff—but if we filled it too full, it bounced a lot. Plus, the pocket openings can be hard to find because there are no pull loops.
The Ultimate Direction Utility Belt has two layers of mesh, with the outer layer coming up higher than the inner one. This design seems like it would be good for security, but even when we were using the pull loops, we weren’t sure whether we were putting things into the pockets or behind the band. The belt also rode up a lot, and the mesh material felt coarse.
The pockets of the UltrAspire Fitted Race Belt aren’t versatile, the pull loops are not easy to grab, and the belt can bunch up in back if that pocket is empty. Plus, the sizing goes up to only 36 inches.
Dual-bottle hydration running belts
The AirRunTech Hydration Running Belt has a large reflective strip across the top of the main pocket, and it’s easy to adjust with a large hook-and-loop–secured strap in the back. But running with two full water bottles felt unwieldy, with lots of movement, so that caused us to run slower than usual. The bottles also pressed against our body. And they’re hard to take out using one hand, without having to stop during a run.
The Amphipod Profile-Lite Breeze Hydration Belt has a stretchy band lined with two silicone strips to help hold it securely; these strips also made it difficult to adjust the belt length, and the belt still bounced. We struggled to get the bottles back into the holsters, and mid-run we accidentally hit and opened the front-facing buckle, which made a bottle fly out.
The Amphipod RunLite 10K Hydration Belt rode up frequently, and we had difficulty pushing it back into place because the silicone-strip-backed belt had no stretch. You can move the bottle holsters around on the strap to find the best positions, but we still found it hard to get the bottles in and out of them.
The LotFancy Running Belt with Bottles had the same issue as the Aikendo Running Belt we tried: The band was stretchy to the point that it felt unsupportive and likely to stretch out completely over time. Its two 6-ounce water bottles are smaller than those of our two-bottle pick (10 ounces each) and not as high in quality. Overall this model seemed on the cheap side.
The Fitletic Hydra 16 Hydration Belt (currently unavailable) bounced constantly, rode up often, and twisted mid-run, with lots of chafing, even through clothes. Also, the angled bottles stuck out past our sides—our hands hit them, unless we modified our arm swing. The central zipper on the pocket was barely big enough, so it was really hard for us to get an iPhone 8 Plus in and out.
The FuelBelt Ergo (currently unavailable) holds the bottles nearly horizontally on one side, with the phone pocket on the other. This design, in theory, should balance the weight better than most. Unfortunately, neither of our test phones fit into the pocket.
The Amazon best-selling Urpower Running Belt seems cheaper than most hydration running belts we’ve tested (because it is). And in our experience one water bottle leaked significantly until we got the cap on just right. The belt rode up a ton, with the heavy part of the pack dropping in the back. The bottles are also smaller than most, capable of holding just 6½ ounces each.
Single-bottle hydration running belts
The Amphipod Profile Lite High Five-K Belt was hard to adjust and rode up. Our iPhone 8 Plus was a really tight fit in its pocket, too.
Touted for “short distance running or fast-paced walking,” the CamelBak Flash Belt (currently unavailable) feels comfortable, and the structured slot for the included 17-ounce bottle makes the bottle fairly easy to slip in and out. In our experience, however, the bottle kept getting caught up in the elastic band at the top of the sleeve meant to hold it in. This belt has a nice, large zippered pocket and one mesh pocket that proved useful. But we had a hard time getting a good fit (the top of the belt gapped at the small of our tester’s back), and the belt bounced a bit and rode up.
We couldn’t get our iPhone 8 Plus to fit in the pocket of the Nathan Peak Hydration Waist Pack. Because the belt had no stretch, it rode up a lot and was impossible to get back into place without unbuckling it.
The Nathan Pinnacle FeatherLite Belt is one size fits most and comes with an 18-ounce soft flask. The straps are easy to adjust, but the bottle doesn’t really stay in place unless you tuck a safety loop around the top. The loop makes the bottle more difficult to access as you’re moving. “Ideally, hydration on a run should be effortless,” said one of our testers, who was also not fond of the belt’s overall design. “One friend told me that it looked like a diaper.”
A one-piece design, the Nathan Pinnacle Hydration Belt comes with a large collapsible water bottle (20 ounces) and has three pockets (one zippered, two grab loops). The bottle nestles into what amounts to a sling, which you secure and open with a loop. We struggled to figure out how to effectively access the bottle (it fell out once), particularly when it was full and didn’t seem to fit well in the pouch. The belt also bounced a bit with a phone in the zippered pocket.
The Osprey Duro Solo (currently unavailable) and the Dyna Solo waist belts both have an odd triangular pocket with a window for your phone screen. To access gear in the inside pocket, you have to rip open and raise the phone-plus-pocket flap, so the design is not very functional. The loop for the bottle nozzle made it hard for us to get the bottle out and to rehook it.
We liked the feel of the Salomon Pulse Hydration Belt, which has a mesh back and lightweight nylon front. But the storage pockets run the length of each side, with no dividers, so items inside tend to migrate to the ends and are hard to reach.
Items fit fine in the pockets of the UltrAspire Essential Bottle Pack, and the band felt secure, but the buckle landed oddly on the right hip point, and we could feel the pack swaying side to side as we ran.
The strap on the UltrAspire Synaptic 2.0 Waist Pack was easier to secure than the one on the UltrAspire Essential Bottle Pack, but the Synaptic 2.0 pack didn’t satisfy our storage needs. A small zippered pocket could barely fit a money clip, so it’s best to put larger items like a phone in the main compartment.
Naomi Birenbaum, Amy Roberts, and Ingrid Skjong contributed reporting. This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.
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Adjustable running belts
The flat, non-stretchy Aikendo Running Belt stayed put near our tester’s natural waist during a 5-mile run, holding an iPhone XS and keys. The pocket is roomy, but the adjustable straps are especially stretchy—to the point where they feel like they could stretch out of shape much too quickly for our liking.
The Amphipod AirFlow Endurance Waistpack has a large, sturdy pocket and a good clasp that’s easy to fasten, and it absorbs moisture well. But we noticed the zipper was occasionally a little hard to close at times. And though we liked the storage compartments inside the main pouch (including three small pockets), it would have been helpful if they were colored differently, since the all-black design sometimes made it difficult to see whether items were going into the three pockets or behind them, into a larger divided area.
Compared with the softer pockets of other belts, the Amphipod AirFlow Lite’s structured pocket feels heavier and more solid when it’s packed with a phone, ID, and keys, and the super-stretchy belt doesn’t prevent bouncing.
The Amphipod AirFlow MicroStretch Plus and AirFlow MicroStretch Plus Luxe belts are identical, aside from their mesh fabric and nylon-polyester fabric, respectively. They also share a couple of flaws. On each one, the band is hard to adjust and too stretchy, so the pocket is more inclined to bounce. We also accidentally bumped the front-button buckle, and that sent the belt flying.
The AquaQuest Kona Pouch has an extra-roomy pocket and water-resistant coating, but it feels hot to wear. Also, smaller users may not be able to get a snug enough fit.
The E Tronic Edge running belt has a long reflective strip, and it’s somewhat comparable to our budget pick in design, minus the small separate pouch for keys. However, the zipper is extremely small, so our testers—even those with small fingers—found it hard to grasp.
The Fitletic Mini Sport Belt is a great minimalist running belt, with a sturdy, solid clasp. If you’re looking for a running belt with only one main pocket to hold the basics or just a phone, the Fitletic Mini is a good option. It also does a good job of wicking sweat. And when it’s worn under a shirt, it’s almost unnoticeable, so it’s a good storage option if your pants don’t have pockets. We did notice the belt sagged a little on longer runs.
The Nathan Laser Light 5K Belt RX is equipped with an integrated LED thread that beams 8 lumens of light. The lights are controlled by a small button on the side of the belt, and are rechargeable via USB-C. We found the lights plenty bright and easy to control. “I can see the belt being great for pacers or bikers leading a group at night,” one tester said. The belt also has decent storage space, with two zippered compartments. But three of our testers felt the belt fell short when it came to fit, as they all found themselves frequently having to adjust it during runs. “I had to stop, shorten the belt, and tuck away the extra” length on the straps, one noted.
The Nathan Zipster Fit Running Belt is like a pared-down version of the Nathan Zipster Max belt we recommend. One benefit of the Adjustable Fit Zipster is that you can hook and unhook the band over your waist, rather than having to slip it up over your legs, as you do with the Zipster Max. But the Adjustable Fit Zipster’s has a finicky clasp system, and two of our testers complained about one of the adjustment straps always dangling from the back.
The SPIbelt Large Pocket (formerly a pick in this guide) has a big zippered pouch and an ultra-stretchy band that fits most waists (you can also buy a waist extender for this model), and it doesn’t have annoying dangling tails. But in our latest round of testing, we found that items too frequently fell out of the pouch, particularly when we were trying to put things in and take them out on the go. We also experienced more-noticeable bounce, compared with using our current picks, and we could feel items moving around when we were running.
The SPIbelt Performance Series is lauded for its performance during marathons (it has four elastic loops made to hold energy gels), and it’s made of a weather-resistant fabric. Although the company clearly states that this belt is not waterproof, the contents of the pouch—including our phone—stayed dry during a very rainy 5-miler. The belt remained in position for most of our run, sitting flush and not riding up, but a few times it migrated upward, depending on what we wore underneath (a tight-fitting running top versus a looser T-shirt). Its pocket is roughly an inch longer than its sibling’s pocket, and retrieving items can be similarly involved. But it worked nicely for us.
An Amazon best seller, the Sport2People Running Belt consists of two long pockets and an adjustable elastic belt. This seems like a nice concept for organization, but in our tests the belt sat awkwardly when a large phone was in one of its pockets. It also failed to fit snugly and ended up bouncing a lot.
The U-Lanaro Slim Running Belt looks similar to the E Tronic Edge, but we found that the belt strap frequently loosened during a run and started to sag. Although it never seemed like it would slip off completely, the sagging was a noticeable distraction, no matter how tightly we adjusted the belt.
Continuous-waistband running belts
The popular FlipBelt Classic Running Belt and the FlipBelt Zipper are neither awful nor uncomfortable, but we liked other belts more. Our iPhone 8 Plus with a Speck case was a tight fit. More annoyingly, because the inside space is largely wide open from hip to hip, items can be hard to fish out, and the seamed edges of the band tend to curl and roll. The thicker-than-most material can get hot, too.
The Naked Running Band (formerly a pick in this guide) surprised us with how much it could hold and how well it kept items in place on long runs. But we experienced some sizing problems, with one tester thinking they’d need to go up one or two sizes than the company’s suggestion.
The Nathan Zipster Lite Running Belt is a smaller version of our upgrade pick, with less storage capability. Although it has four storage areas, like the Zipster Max that we recommend, an iPhone 14 did not fit in the zippered areas. And we found it was difficult to take a phone out of the stretchy side areas.
Our testers encountered more sizing issues with the Salomon Pulse than with the Nathan Zipster Max. We thought you’d need to carry a lot for this waistband to work, because otherwise items move around too much. It looks sleek, but there were more design flaws than we’d prefer. Another tester said, “The cinched stitching design on the top and bottom of the belt made it feel like it was cutting into my waist a little bit.”
The soft-fabric Stashbandz belt is wider than many models, and extra-large phones fit in its zipper pocket fine, but the zipper is inset with a small pull that gets lost in the fabric.
We found that the bottom edge of the Ultimate Direction Comfort Belt curled under in the front, and the back bunched up if not filled with stuff—but if we filled it too full, it bounced a lot. Plus, the pocket openings can be hard to find because there are no pull loops.
The Ultimate Direction Utility Belt has two layers of mesh, with the outer layer coming up higher than the inner one. This design seems like it would be good for security, but even when we were using the pull loops, we weren’t sure whether we were putting things into the pockets or behind the band. The belt also rode up a lot, and the mesh material felt coarse.
The pockets of the UltrAspire Fitted Race Belt aren’t versatile, the pull loops are not easy to grab, and the belt can bunch up in back if that pocket is empty. Plus, the sizing goes up to only 36 inches.
Dual-bottle hydration running belts
The AirRunTech Hydration Running Belt has a large reflective strip across the top of the main pocket, and it’s easy to adjust with a large hook-and-loop–secured strap in the back. But running with two full water bottles felt unwieldy, with lots of movement, so that caused us to run slower than usual. The bottles also pressed against our body. And they’re hard to take out using one hand, without having to stop during a run.
The Amphipod Profile-Lite Breeze Hydration Belt has a stretchy band lined with two silicone strips to help hold it securely; these strips also made it difficult to adjust the belt length, and the belt still bounced. We struggled to get the bottles back into the holsters, and mid-run we accidentally hit and opened the front-facing buckle, which made a bottle fly out.
The Amphipod RunLite 10K Hydration Belt rode up frequently, and we had difficulty pushing it back into place because the silicone-strip-backed belt had no stretch. You can move the bottle holsters around on the strap to find the best positions, but we still found it hard to get the bottles in and out of them.
The LotFancy Running Belt with Bottles had the same issue as the Aikendo Running Belt we tried: The band was stretchy to the point that it felt unsupportive and likely to stretch out completely over time. Its two 6-ounce water bottles are smaller than those of our two-bottle pick (10 ounces each) and not as high in quality. Overall this model seemed on the cheap side.
The Fitletic Hydra 16 Hydration Belt (currently unavailable) bounced constantly, rode up often, and twisted mid-run, with lots of chafing, even through clothes. Also, the angled bottles stuck out past our sides—our hands hit them, unless we modified our arm swing. The central zipper on the pocket was barely big enough, so it was really hard for us to get an iPhone 8 Plus in and out.
The FuelBelt Ergo (currently unavailable) holds the bottles nearly horizontally on one side, with the phone pocket on the other. This design, in theory, should balance the weight better than most. Unfortunately, neither of our test phones fit into the pocket.
The Amazon best-selling Urpower Running Belt seems cheaper than most hydration running belts we’ve tested (because it is). And in our experience one water bottle leaked significantly until we got the cap on just right. The belt rode up a ton, with the heavy part of the pack dropping in the back. The bottles are also smaller than most, capable of holding just 6½ ounces each.
Single-bottle hydration running belts
The Amphipod Profile Lite High Five-K Belt was hard to adjust and rode up. Our iPhone 8 Plus was a really tight fit in its pocket, too.
Touted for “short distance running or fast-paced walking,” the CamelBak Flash Belt (currently unavailable) feels comfortable, and the structured slot for the included 17-ounce bottle makes the bottle fairly easy to slip in and out. In our experience, however, the bottle kept getting caught up in the elastic band at the top of the sleeve meant to hold it in. This belt has a nice, large zippered pocket and one mesh pocket that proved useful. But we had a hard time getting a good fit (the top of the belt gapped at the small of our tester’s back), and the belt bounced a bit and rode up.
We couldn’t get our iPhone 8 Plus to fit in the pocket of the Nathan Peak Hydration Waist Pack. Because the belt had no stretch, it rode up a lot and was impossible to get back into place without unbuckling it.
The Nathan Pinnacle FeatherLite Belt is one size fits most and comes with an 18-ounce soft flask. The straps are easy to adjust, but the bottle doesn’t really stay in place unless you tuck a safety loop around the top. The loop makes the bottle more difficult to access as you’re moving. “Ideally, hydration on a run should be effortless,” said one of our testers, who was also not fond of the belt’s overall design. “One friend told me that it looked like a diaper.”
A one-piece design, the Nathan Pinnacle Hydration Belt comes with a large collapsible water bottle (20 ounces) and has three pockets (one zippered, two grab loops). The bottle nestles into what amounts to a sling, which you secure and open with a loop. We struggled to figure out how to effectively access the bottle (it fell out once), particularly when it was full and didn’t seem to fit well in the pouch. The belt also bounced a bit with a phone in the zippered pocket.
The Osprey Duro Solo (currently unavailable) and the Dyna Solo waist belts both have an odd triangular pocket with a window for your phone screen. To access gear in the inside pocket, you have to rip open and raise the phone-plus-pocket flap, so the design is not very functional. The loop for the bottle nozzle made it hard for us to get the bottle out and to rehook it.
We liked the feel of the Salomon Pulse Hydration Belt, which has a mesh back and lightweight nylon front. But the storage pockets run the length of each side, with no dividers, so items inside tend to migrate to the ends and are hard to reach.
Items fit fine in the pockets of the UltrAspire Essential Bottle Pack, and the band felt secure, but the buckle landed oddly on the right hip point, and we could feel the pack swaying side to side as we ran.
The strap on the UltrAspire Synaptic 2.0 Waist Pack was easier to secure than the one on the UltrAspire Essential Bottle Pack, but the Synaptic 2.0 pack didn’t satisfy our storage needs. A small zippered pocket could barely fit a money clip, so it’s best to put larger items like a phone in the main compartment.
Naomi Birenbaum, Amy Roberts, and Ingrid Skjong contributed reporting. This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.
The 4 Best Running Belts of 2025
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