Why do walking pad belts fail?

Just a quick update. While there is some positive news there is also some bad. Let us start with that.

The belt broke

You remember the test rig? I finally got it working and placed one of the Office Walker prototypes underneath with some added weight. It did not take long until the belt broke. The bearings pushed through until it ripped in the middle.

This was really surprising, as that never was a problem while I was walking on it, and it also did not happen on the two test setups at Intertek in Nuremberg.

Why the rig may be the problem

The reason is probably that the wheels of my test rig focus all the load on a small area, and thus on a single bearing. Unlike a human foot, which spreads the load across the whole sole.

Plus the eccentricity of the wheels lets them smash onto the Office Walker pretty hard. This is probably more pronounced than on the original version of the test rig, because the manufacturer used larger but slimmer wheels for mine, leading to more impact force.

So it is likely more of an extreme test case.

Anyway, this should not happen to the belt. So it turns out that the belt I have been using so far does not seem to be suitable.

What a belt actually has to survive

On a manual walking pad the belt is not dragged over a flat deck the way it is on a motorised one. It sits on bearings, and every step presses the material down onto them. That is a very different load: concentrated in small spots, repeated tens of thousands of times a day, and always in the same places.

Which is why the dents appeared where they did. Not randomly across the surface, but in a few specific spots.

Sourcing a new one

That means I need to source a new belt as soon as possible. I have identified some promising belt manufacturers in Germany and other European countries, and I have already received two quotes for samples.

So the plan is to test some new belts that have certain improvements over the current one. At least I now know much better what I am looking for.

But I do not know yet what that means for the timeline. If everything goes well we might still be able to stick to the current timeline and start production at the end of the month or the beginning of August. Two types of belts especially are in stock and could be shipped fast. If they work out for the Office Walker, of course.

The good news

Production of the slats started. There were some problems initially with the slat base, but they should have a couple of thousand pieces ready within the next few days and ship them by truck. So the slats should arrive at the beginning of August.

Production of the side panels also started. The CNC has already produced 50 sets, they just need to be sanded and the finish applied. I received three test samples in the final dark brown colour.

I will keep you posted. There is more to this belt story and it turned out differently than I expected.

Update, 7 August 2026: what really happened with the belt

Before doing anything drastic, I wanted to understand whether the problem was the belt or the machine. The pressure-film comparison answered it.

When I tested with an actual person at the full 150 kg limit, none of this showed up. The rig was essentially torturing the belt in a way that doesn't reflect real use. I've now been able to roughly calibrate it to account for this. That was a real relief, and it lines up with the fact that I never experienced this problem while actually walking on it.

That said, the belt I'd been using still isn't the ideal choice going forward, so I've been sourcing a better one. I've been working with a manufacturer here in Germany, and there are two options:

• Blue: can be delivered in 2–3 weeks, and there's enough material for roughly 200 Office Walkers. We could get started quickly.
• Black: less visible against the frame, but it won't be ready until the end of September.

Worth noting: the black belt isn't completely invisible either but it does blend in much better. Based on current estimates, the gap between the two would be roughly three weeks, so it's a smaller trade-off than it first looked.

Update, 21 August 2026: belts ordered

The belts are ordered. The majority of backers preferred to wait for the black belts. That said, quite a few found both versions fine or even liked the blue one.

So here's the plan: the black belts should arrive by the end of September. In the meantime, I've ordered a few hundred meters of the blue belt, arriving at the beginning of September. That lets us start fully completing the side panels and keep testing, without waiting for the black material.

One thing I haven't mentioned before: there will also be a beige belt. That one is for the light-colored frame. A black belt would stand out quite a bit there, while the beige should blend in nicely. It's arriving alongside the black one by the end of September.

How the test rig was built · The Office Walker · Specifications